My thoughts on Fixed Plant Maintenance Training.

 

My thoughts on Fixed Plant Maintenance Training.

I have been working at various mine sites over the last 10 years in Papua New Guinea, Mali West Africa, and Egypt. I have worked in two roles. One role was as a Maintenance Training Coordinator and the other in Reliability at Superintendent Level. One may think that is a strange mix of job roles but I can see a connection that improves Reliability, increases production, and reduces maintenance cost.

In large organizations, they will look to have training that is recognized, in Australia and they will go through a Registered Training Organization (RTOs) to deliver vocational and education training services (VET). These RTOs are recognized as providers of quality-assured and nationally recognized training and qualifications.

These qualifications are an important part of the development and needs of a Maintenance team. We need to go a step further as every Mine site has different issues in relation to Reliability and machinery failure. My philosophy is we must address and direct the training at the issues at hand.

We have in this day and age sophisticated CMMS and the information is there where the needs are to improve Reliability and Maintenance Practices. This is what I view as training to improve Reliability, increase productivity and reduce maintenance costs.  

Here is an example. At one Mine site I worked they were having a very significant number of early motor bearing failures. It was found they were using general-purpose grease for motor bearing lubrication and not specific grease recommended by the OEM. They had a shaft laser aligner on site but most tradesmen were not fully trained. This meant precision alignment was not being achieved. It was also observed during bearing replacement that the tradesman with the use of a bearing heater, heated the bearing prior to installation to 180 degrees Celsius. If a bearing before mounting is heated to above 125 degrees Celsius it can destroy the bearing's metallurgical properties leading to softening the bearing itself. There is also a chance of a permanent change to the bearing dimensions. Hygiene is another issue that is critical in the fitting of rolling element bearings.

Specific Training needs

•  Coupling alignment course developed on-site with practical field observation.
•  Correct rolling element bearing fitting practices course developed on site.
• Correct lubricant and lubrication practices for electric motors developed and presented on-site

In addition, the PMs were checked and the instructions were improved and more specific. In relation to laser alignment, additional training was given to save the final alignment report. These files were then downloaded and kept on the Reliability computer files. If the file was not saved by the tradesman during the alignment then it was considered the alignment was incomplete.

In the first year with the help of planning it was estimated motor bearing failures were reduced by 70%. This percentage was expected to increase with the effects of this targeted training. This is one issue in mining fixed plant maintenance but there are many more.

I am very supportive of Vocational Education Training and it has its place in fixed-plant mining. At times there are issues to be addressed and training should be targeted. My thoughts are Reliability, Planning, Maintenance, and Training can work together to improve Reliability, increase Production and reduce maintenance costs.

These are my thoughts from the perspective of working on mine sites in Reliability, Condition Monitoring and Fixed Plant Maintenance Training.

Contact:   robbieccs@gmail.com

Alternative email robertmva@yahoo.com.au

Stay safe

Robert Smith