SDT Ultrasound Solutions released the Checker series in early January of 2018. The Checker series are high quality ultrasound inspection devices, designed and engineered with Operator Driven Reliability (ODR) in mind. This was done to help drive the conversation and awareness of the usefulness of ultrasound inspection, in all forms of industrial processing and manufacturing. By providing Ultrasound inspection hardware for use by technicians on the factory floor, SDT continues to set the benchmark for ultrasound PDM in industry.
The Checker series have been incredibly popular.
In this post, we are going to look at peer reviews of one of the four Checkers: the LUBEChecker.
LUBEChecker, How does it work?
As indicated by it’s name, the LUBEChecker is designed to be put in the hands of those responsible for one of the most critical jobs in industry today; Lubrication of rotating assets. With the LUBEChecker, a lubrication technician can grease bearings with the utmost confidence that she/he is performing the task they have been assigned; Keep the plant running!
To assist the technician in doing this, the LUBEChecker provides feedback to the operator in 2 fundamental ways;
1. It delivers audible noise through a set of connected headphones
and
2. It provides a visual dB number on screen as per image below
With these 2 critical pieces of information, the tool allows the operator to ‘hear’ and ‘see’ the effect of the grease when it is applied to the bearing. By being able to ‘see’ a quantifiable dB value, the operator can then have 100% confidence that the sound got
a) Quieter
b) Louder
c) Or did not change.
LUBEChecker sets itself apart from other available tools with that simple dB number. If a so called ‘lubrication assistant device’ does not provide a numerical dB value to quantify a, b or c as listed above, then it is not something that we would advise the use of in a modern operation in 2018…
Reviews: Does it work?
So, 9 months later, we posed several questions to early adopters of the technology from 3 vastly different industries (Dairy, Paper and Mining) to find out; ‘just how good is it?’
Continue reading to find out the effect the LUBEChecker has had on lubrication practice and lubrication culture:
1. Have you found the LUBEChecker useful?
- Dairy industry contact: Yes – tradesmen are proactive in using it. It helped us set up some baseline grease schedules.
- Paper industry contact: Yes. Greatly in fact.
- Mining industry contact: You bet.
2. Have you noticed that you are putting more or less grease into bearings?
- Dairy: We didn’t really have anything to go on – but we are now putting grease into some bearings weekly which we only did annually before.
- Paper: We are using less grease after our second month using it.
- Mining: Far less grease. Estimates have us down 50% usage.
3. Has it helped shape the culture/understanding of the impact grease has on rotating assets? If so, how?
- Dairy: Yes – More focus has been put in and the culture has definitely improved.
- Paper: Yes, our lube team is very engaged whilst greasing bearings now as they can immediately determine how the grease is affecting the machine audibly and with the dB value on screen.
- Mining: Yes. Now our team can get meaningful information from the machine itself. It is a 2-way conversation now. Using the LUBEChecker, the bearing tells the tech that it has had enough or if it needs more.
4. What is the best feature of the LBc?
- Dairy: We now have tangible data to base decisions from. Previously, we used calculations and the calendar to grease. This was ok, but is not suitable when we can now use technology to guide these decisions.
- Paper: The main function of providing feedback to the operator/lubie is great. The dB digital readout is a great benefit and a real game changer.
- Mining: Well, apart from the obvious (getting our greasing done properly) it is small, lightweight, easy to use and encourages our techs to think about their job and the impact they are having.
As you can probably see, the feedback has been very positive.
While we cannot publish names of the contributors, we would like to thank them for their time and availability to provide this information.
So, what are you waiting for? If your site is suffering from poor lubrication practices, call GVS today for an obligation free consultation with one of our experts.
