Emerson's machinery maintenance strategy aids BASF Antwerp

ControlGlobal.com
07/26/2006

	BASF reduced costs with Emerson's Machinery Health technology.

AUSTIN, TEXAS (July 26, 2006) -- Emerson Process Management’s Machinery Health Management technologies have enabled BASF Antwerp to maximize plant output and reduce costs through the introduction of a maintenance strategy based on predictive intelligence.

 

BASF Antwerp implemented a predictive maintenance strategy 10 years ago based on the collection and analysis of vibration data using Emerson’s CSI Machinery Health Analyzers. Moving from a time-based regime to a predictive approach has resulted in reported cost savings and fewer equipment breakdowns. BASF will practice predictive maintenance while undertaking Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) to enable a move towards proactive maintenance.

“Using Emerson’s Machinery Health Analyzers and AMS Suite: Machinery Health Manager software, has enabled us to detect critical problems that could not have been seen before,” says Johan De Wever, rotating engineering specialist, BASF. “These problems include bearing cage problems and potential faults with slow speed machinery. Last year we were able to make significant savings as a result of our predictive maintenance program.”

BASF monitors approximately 3,000 machines. An example of problems that were detected with the aid of Emerson’s diagnostic technologies was a defective bearing cage in a fan that was used for drying chalk. Failure of the fan areportedly could have caused a production outage and two days of lost production estimated to be approximately $12,800. There also could have been secondary damage to the machine, such as a bent shaft or failed bearing. However, the problem was found before a functional failure occurred, and the impact on production was significantly reduced. BASF has also been able to use vibration monitoring to extend the period between bearing replacements on fertilizer production machinery.

“Emerson’s technologies played an important role in preventing lost production due to an extended downtime in the incident with the chalk drying fan,” continues Johan De Wever. “We feel confident that our relationship with Emerson plays a part in keeping our strong market position. These tools have allowed our team to grow our core competencies to include troubleshooting, multi-channel analysis, and ODS analysis. We have been able to use our own expertise, along with Emerson technologies, to watch over a broad scope of assets across this huge facility and to prevent problems before they occur.”