Evap Pumps — Motion Amplification Case Study — Cost Justification
At a continuous production plant a new installation of critical Motors and Pumps was signed off from the Projects Team to Operating Team as complete and in good order, ready to use in the process. However, bearing and coupling failures were occurring within 6 weeks of installation and continued for 12 months of operation resulting in 6 failures and 1 incident of reduced plant throughput.
| Cause | No. of Fails | Costs | Costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pump Seal Failure | 2 | £4800 seal & Labour x 2 | £9600 |
| Bearing Failures | 4 | £6825 (30% of ERV) x 4 | £27,300 |
| Plant on Half Rates | 1 | 8Hrs x £5000 cost to biz | £40,000 |
| Total Cost to Business | £76,900 |
Motion Amplification was deployed to review the machines and found the root cause of the issue within 15 minutes. The bases were poorly installed and of insufficient design quality. All 3 motors and pumps needed to come offline, be removed and have the bases remanufactured to ensure lower vibration levels and reliable continued operation. The visual side of the videos was key in proving the bases were poor.
Had Motion Amplification technology been utilised at the commissioning stage the poor installation of the pumps would not have been signed off for use on plant and the base improvement works would have been completed before completing commissioning and handing over to Operating Team.
Cost of Iris M Deployment at site – £27,475
| Cost of Iris M Deployment at site | £27,475 |
| Cost of failures to business | £76,900 |
| Total Potential Cost Avoidance | £49,425 |
The site has upwards of 800 machines with nearly 400 critical machines to which the plant will either reduce to half rates or complete stop if failure conditions arise unexpectedly. While CM is used to avoid rapidly arising issues, MA is now used to ensure a minimum of human error during the commissioning phase, integrity during normal conditions and root cause analysis when repeat problems arise.
