In Part II of Insider Secrets to Hydraulics, I outline a logical approach to hydraulic system troubleshooting that begins with checking and eliminating the easy things first. The benefits of this approach are clearly illustrated by a troubleshooting situation I was involved in recently.

A long time ago, I discovered that most maintenance people like gadgets and smart methods, especially from within their fields. I must include myself in this group, and have learned to use the knowledge of a variety of maintenance methods to keep up my own enthusiasm while generating interest and commitment for implementing better preventive and corrective maintenance practices. Most of these methods are old, but they are very new to many, especially to people who are just entering the area of maintenance.

There is another, often overlooked, type of preventive maintenance inspection which can not be scheduled at regular intervals. These inspections can and should be done in conjunction with corrective maintenance. Corrective maintenance is defined as maintenance work which involves the repair or replacement of components which have failed or broken down.

One of the most rewarding aspects of working as an electrician is taking such compelling evidence as “appears to be developing a problem,” determining what is actually going on, and making a sound decision on the correct course of action. Successfully troubleshooting a complex piece of equipment gives a technician a tremendous sense of satisfaction. Having an effective troubleshooting plan and following it can help obtain this feeling of satisfaction.

A laptop computer with PLC programming, communication, and operating programs is a necessary tool in today’s modern plant. Engineers, production supervisors, maintenance supervisors, maintenance technicians, electricians, instrument technicians, and maintenance mechanics all need to have PLC and computer knowledge, training and skills in troubleshooting.

You have four opportunities to trouble shoot centrifugal pumps and each opportunity can offer you a clue as to what is wrong with the pump. Let’s take a look at each of these conditions:

Too much heat can cause multiple problems with cartridge mechanical seals. Some heat problems are not seal design or seal installation related.

Paul Maier, project manager of the NYSERDA study, states that “Pump sandblasting and coating should be a required step of any pump. refurbishment program.” MCWA has also included interior pump coatings as a requirement in its new pump specifications. The goal is that. requiring coatings on the inside of. new pumps will eliminate, or significantly delay, the seemingly inevitable decline in pump performance and efficiency from internal corrosion and tuberculation buildup inside unlined pumps.

Let’s suppose that we have recorded the time when each failure of a repairable subsystem has happened during a season. The arrangement of these failures (black points in Figure 1) along the time axis is called a stochastical realization of failure events.