Monitor 35mm internal wear lining of the conveyor feed and reject bin. 60mm wear probe installed at high wearing choke points. Know high abrasive wear locations.
Technical Solution:
Monitored data showing 1mm of wear per 1.5 weeks. Forecast to failure constantly monitoring a failure at 40 x weeks from install. Predictive Maintenance alarm set at 10 x weeks to Failure. Alarm notification reports notified the Maintenance Team. The wear rate was monitored. No structural integrity failure. Efficient change out of worn liners in scheduled maintenance planning.
The results from this Hopper Liner Monitoring case study were both safety and cost beneficial:
Safety Results:
- Eliminated the need for inspections
- Eliminated Personnel exposure to working at heights
- Eliminate Personnel exposure inside the operating plant
- Eliminate Exposure to temporary patching from failure
- Eliminated Structural integrity risk of weekend structure
- Eliminated access into confined space
- Eliminated inspections monthly over life of asset.
- Eliminated temporary patching.
- Eliminated Scaffold/Access Cost
- Eliminated Unplanned Outage due to failure.
- Streamlined maintenance planning, ordering and fabrication.
Cost saving of this Hopper Liner Monitoring does not include unplanned shutdown of process plant. The saving also does not reflect a near death incident on this site from a bin collapse. Thickness testing was not carried out. The cone of the Bin collapsed into the back of a truck. No one was injured but a legal reportable incident. Monitoring sensors now supply real time data on current condition.
