Through its Service Division, SEW-EURODRIVE provides dependable on-site support, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Increasingly important, is the proactive maintenance side, which relies on the ‘prevention is better than cure’ philosophy to improve equipment performance and reliability, reduce unscheduled breakdowns and extend equipment life.
DriveRadar prevents unforeseen failures in operation, detects and tracks wear rates and minimises downtime.
Plant operators are often under pressure to keep production running at the expense of routine and necessary maintenance. Their focus is on making money in the immediate term rather than investing in a maintenance programme to ensure better long-term performance and equipment reliability. “Busy people onsite don’t always understand the real value of regular maintenance, so they often take unnecessary risks,” says Eben Pretorius, HOD of the company’s Service division.
SEW-EURODRIVE can offer a wide range of cost-effective services to help users to take better care of their industrial gearboxes (IGs), gear motors and the company’s electronic and automation range of controllers and variable speed drives (VSDs). At the starting point of this offering is Field services and Site assistance, which provides break down and problem solving support for users of SEW-EURODRIVE equipment.
“For mechanical drive trains, this service includes oil sampling and analysis, vibration and thermal inspections, laser alignment, as well as internal and external inspections along with onsite strip and repair work,” notes Pretorius.
He says that customers often start to experience minor issues such as oil leaks with their equipment a few years after installation due to lack of maintenance. This is an ideal time to do a site survey of the drive equipment in use. During an onsite walk-through of operating equipment, for example, SEW-EURODRIVE service specialists will typically take oil samples from the gearboxes, do vibration analysis to determine the condition of the bearings and whether the gears are meshing properly.
“We may open some of the inspection covers and inspect the gears for wear, and if there are alignment issue, we can re-align the drive train, which is necessary to ensure that bearings and seals do not fail prematurely,” he says.
After looking at the equipment onsite, a report is produced summarising the condition of the equipment and the remedial action necessary to improve reliability. The problems identified are clearly explained and maintenance procedures suggested. “We highlight where urgent action is required and also point out less critical issues that can be dealt with during the next scheduled shutdown,” Pretorius continues.
By adopting the recommendations, equipment performance and reliability will improve, unscheduled breakdowns can be avoided and the life of the installed equipment can be extended.
For ongoing support, SEW-EURODRIVE offers plant operators Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The information from an onsite survey is used to identify units that most need proactive services and how often equipment condition and maintenance requirements need to be looked at. “Typically we suggest a visual inspection every three months and a more comprehensive equipment survey every six months,” he says.
No one can guarantee that a machine won’t fail, but SLAs and even using SEW Eurodrive’s DriveRadar condition monitoring can be used to predict when a failure is likely to happen on a unit, and which of the units are in good condition and unlikely to fail. “From vibration analysis, we can pick up if a bearing is worn and about to fail, and from oil analysis, we can see if the lubricant is contaminated. By responding quicky to such issues, unexpected and more serious failures can almost always be avoided,” he adds.
Looking further into the future and more so the IIoT, SEW-EURODRIVE offers DriveRadar, a condition-based maintenance platform. “DriveRadar is a connected solution for data-based predictive maintenance that automatically collects data from field equipment and uses it to track tends, monitor equipment condition and predict potential failures. DriveRadar prevents unforeseen failures in operation, detects and tracks wear rates and minimises downtime.
The DriveRadar monitoring system is an independent system with all operating data sent to the SEW-Eurodrive Cloud using a LTE/3G sim card or an Ethernet connection. All the information can be viewed on a secure portal, with all operating history and operating events are readily available. “While there are costs associated with our proactive maintenance-based services, these are far less expensive than breakdown repair costs and, by intervening before breakdowns occurs, unscheduled downtime and massive production-loss costs can be avoided.