>> Maintenance plant on the right rails
How
Jarvis Rail’s focus on plant maintenance helps to
improve performance and reliability. (date: Aug 2001)
For Jarvis Rail, the rail infrastructure maintenance company,
managing the reliability of the plant used to maintain the
track is an essential part of their operation, because in
the hectic world of the UK rail industry, safety, reliability
and time are at the top of everyone’s agenda.
A
recent review of the mechanical failures in hydraulic systems
in Jarvis Rail repair plant has identified a significant potential
to reduce operational breakdowns by the introduction of oil
condition monitoring. This has recently been installed alongside
vibration monitoring for gear units and motors, which was
introduced nearly a year ago.
Pat
McHale, Jarvis Rail plant manager: “We operate specialised
construction plant and equipment on a national basis, so our
focus has to be on total reliability. Contracts to maintain
or repair track must cause minimal disruption to timetables,
so any delay caused by our plant failing and needing maintenance
during track ‘out-time’ could have significant
penalty cost implications”.
The
type of plant they operate, all rail-based and dedicated to
track maintenance, includes tampers, regulators and track
renewal machines, all depend on hydraulic power for lifting
and power drive equipment. Hydraulics are at the heart of
the plants’ operational capability.
“Whenever there is a failure, our maintenance fitters
record the cause of the fault. We are now building a profile
of problems and sources of problems. We identified that failures
in pumps and valves were largely due to filtration and oil
performance, or more accurately, under-performance”.
He said.
Operations director, Richard Davies invited condition monitoring
experts, Monition Ltd to work with Jarvis Rail on developing
a new strategy to target oil related mechanical problems in
hydraulic systems.
Monitions’
approach was straightforward. First, those hydraulic oils
used must meet a specified performance standard, so Jarvis
decided to standardise all oils to a limited number of grades
and suppliers. As an extra precaution, incoming oils were
also sampled and analysed to ensure that they did meet the
promised grade specification. “We did find that some
oils we received could be of varying quality, so we decided
to check them ourselves”, said Pat McHale.
The
level of cleanliness of the oils in service is, however, the
key issue which led to most of the problems. With the help
of Monition, hydraulic oils are given a target cleanliness
level (TCL) which ensures that all oils in the system are
replaced before contamination levels can affect any sensitive
hydraulic operations.
“So
now we are confident that the oil we introduce to the systems
meets a high performance standard and in service we can monitor
its cleanliness and operational performance”, said Kevin
Hughes, Jarvis Maintenance Manager who has been implementing
the new strategy.
“It’s
too early to accurately quantify at this stage the level of
success we have achieved. We have lots of stories of oil and
vibration monitoring ‘saving the day’, but we
are still building data to establish a trend. We are confident
however, that when everything is in place and all staff are
involved, we will be able to see and remove problems before
they can cause a delay through plant breakdown. And we’ll
be able to do much more condition-based maintenance, which
will dictate how long we can run a motor, component or a lubricant
before we change it according to our own maintenance plans,
rather than a rigid planning schedule”.
Part
of the Jarvis Rail maintenance approach has been to put their
maintenance fitting staff very firmly in the information loop.
“Every fitter now has their own email account. When
they take oil samples or provide information on a failure,
they also receive the report, which builds on their experience
and understanding of condition based maintenance”, Kevin
Hughes explained.
Monition’s
role has been crucial, ensuring that oil cleanliness remains
within the TCL so that particle contamination or water ingress
cannot adversely affect the performance of the oils in service.
Lubricant analysis of both hydraulic systems, gear units and
engines also provide the necessary insight into abnormal wear
or other trends which indicate possible future problems.
Comprehensively
put together by Monition and shared widely with maintenance
supervisors, fitters and maintenance managers, the information
provides evidence of plant performance, which can, with a
high degree of accuracy, allow maintenance intervention to
be efficiently planned.
Cost
savings, operationally, in lower maintenance and in terms
of reduced delay incidents are inevitably following. But more
importantly for Jarvis Rail, the real benefits are in improving
the quality and reliability of their service.
“Keeping
the trains running and passengers transported with minimum
disruption and maximum safety is the real prize”, added
Richard Davies.'
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