Maintenance, Repair and Operations Feature Library
Operations Engineer's library catalogues editorial features going back five years.
Access to all archive material is free to all, including non-members of IPlantE
(the Institution of Operations Engineers) or BES (Bureau of Engineer Surveyors), under
the umbrella of SOE (Society of Operations Engineers). However, to discover the
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04/04/2019
A measure of success
Developments among industrial system and component suppliers are changing the rules of inspection of fixed industrial assets: goodbye clipboard, hello tablet. OE offers an overview of how these systems work, their benefits and drawbacks, ...
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04/04/2019
Interview: AI for industrial inspection
Artificial Intelligence for Industrial Inspection was the title, and subject, of a January conference organised by the Bristol Robotics Lab and the Centre for Modelling & Simulation. The latter’s AI domain specialist, Kiran Krishnamurthy, ...
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07/03/2019
Printing up performance
Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies offer a wide range of benefits for short run products, prototyping and high-end superalloy components. Now, having built a foothold in niche products, AM is set to break out of its traditional mould
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05/02/2019
A matter of manganese
Filtering out the naturally-occurring mineral from potable water in the North East is a new 37.3Mld pressure filtration plant
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05/02/2019
Cleaning up
Leaks and uncontrolled releases of diesel can have major impacts on nature and the environment if they aren’t dealt with properly. Luckily there are different measures, products and services available for operators and businesses in ...
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05/02/2019
Infrared vessel inspection whatever the scale
Thermal imaging is proving to be a quick and easy way of monitoring the integrity and content level of storage tanks. And now there are several infrared technologies that can be employed to sense particular gases, such as VOCs
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04/01/2019
Comment: Site to factory
Volvo and Skanska’s project to electrify and automate operations in a Swedish quarry is profiled this month. It’s not the first such project for Volvo, which has tested self-driving mine trucks in Norway and South Africa, at least. This ...
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04/01/2019
Brammer signals service focus with Midlands opening
Operating 47 branches around the UK, industrial supply house Brammer, Buck and Hickman (BBH) supplies 500,000 parts a year from a catalogue amounting to 5.5 million items. It has opened the first of three new service centres launching over ...
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04/01/2019
Sonic boom
Ultrasound detectors empower users to track down and repair compressed air leaks. They also deliver the means to predict failures, control energy costs and improve product quality
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04/01/2019
Exposed to vibration
Workers that frequently use hand-held power tools can become exposed to hand-arm vibration. However, this potentially disabling problem can be reduced and eliminated through different ways of working
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05/12/2018
Immersed in technology
Augmented and virtual reality are not new to industry, but a recent report from Capgemini has highlighted that repair and maintenance are the most popular focus of implementation efforts. In what ways can this technology aid workers in ...
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02/11/2018
Making obsolescence obsolete
3D printing offers the opportunity to make parts when they are needed – anywhere in the world – provided a digital model is available. Might this provide a way to duplicate parts that are no longer available to buy?
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02/11/2018
Smarter CM
Condition monitoring (CM) of bearings goes back to the birth of rotating machinery. But the rise of low cost digital sensors, the industrial internet and cloud computing has launched condition monitoring into a whole new era of ...
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17/10/2018
Now you see me
High-visibility clothing has become an essential part of work in and around industrial environments and vehicles. Adam Offord explores the legal basis, performance standards and properties of the much-used personal protective equipment
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21/08/2018
Getting smart
Mark Venables speaks to Conal Brown, technical consultant at ABB, about how being smart allows maintenance of machinery to be carried out in a cheaper, faster and more effective way to enhance the bottom line
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02/07/2018
Developing an effective lubrication strategy
It is predicted that the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) would eventually lead to the end of unplanned downtime in factories. While we’ve not yet reached this point, plant managers can improve their maintenance systems by following ...
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02/07/2018
End game for maintenance
Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics are pushing maintenance into a digital future, as Mark Venables explains
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02/07/2018
The maintenance dilemma
For manufacturers, there are tough decisions to make about how much effort is required to maintain a plant of product at a level where breakdowns will be rare enough to ensure volume targets are met, as Mark Venables discovers
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30/04/2018
Data-driven MRO
Maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) items are used in production and plant maintenance, and include maintenance supplies, spare parts and consumables used in the production process. But, as Mark Venables explains, in the drive towards ...
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28/02/2018
What to consider when cleaning parts
Every industry, from industrial to commercial, requires parts cleaning. The question for many facility managers is, however, is there a right way to clean parts? Well the answer is yes and, by choosing the right parts cleaning machine and ...
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28/02/2018
Spring cleaning
Keeping machinery and work areas clean and tidy can often be seen as a chore by already busy workers. However, as Chris Beck discovers, the benefits of a good cleaning regime are wide-reaching
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