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Do you have a good handle on the 4 enemies of Hydraulics ? Hydraulics and hydraulic systems and controls are quite key to many operations. However with their growing complexity and the gradual loss of onsite knowledge many operations are facing a knowledge gap in understanding these systems to adequately maintain, monitor their condition, do fault finding and diagnosis and further improve their reliability.
Our thanks to Energy Australia Yallourn power station for kindly hosting the 27th February SIRF Hydraulics Master Class and Workshop. Also thank you to Shane Barnett and Paul Needham of Hydeng who kindly presented the Masterclass for us, for generously sharing their depth of knowledge, insights and experience in Hydraulics. We had 39 people from 13 SIRF member companies attend Shane’s Masterclass which also gave the group the opportunity to discuss in depth the important aspects of Hydraulics.
Below are some the learnings from the workshop,
1. Safety (Loto, Isolation, understanding, procedures, operational)
• Loto given
• Stored energy – gravity, failsafe, monitored safety
• Hoses right rating – tags
• Line of fire – oils
• Accumulators – block and bleed
2. Maintenance(Reliability how to improve, best practice ? plant life, routines preventative vs predictive)
• Routines – repair and checks
• Online monitoring and alarms
• Filter new oil
• Visual inspections, pressure and temp – oil condition
• 6 year replacements, visual routines – operator
• 6 year Ram routine overhauls
• Heat exchanger – water leaks – water, tanks, oil cooler
• Components – run to fail and overhaul
• Clean and inspect
• Regime to suit equipment life
3. Trouble shooting & Fault finding (Diagnosis, efficient ? understanding and condition monitoring)
a. Information
• How it should operate
• Having accurate drawings
• Accurate reporting of symptoms
• History of equipment
• Log book for issues
b. Standard trouble shooting procedure / checklist
• Consistent temperature
• Pressure
• Leaks
• Oil cleanliness
c. Understanding failure
• Taking the time to understand why and how the failure occurred & preventing repeated failure
• Follow through on root cause
• Record steps to discovery
4. New system setup (Design, best practices, updating older and existing)
• Design to environment
• Spec detail – do they just meet
• ‘Day in life’ scenarios to ensure don’t have to retrofit
• Design to obsolescence
• Spares mgmt.
• Lifecycle justification
If interested in a full wrap up on the day do get in touch so I can get across to you. Please follow the link below to the SIRF library, to access Shane’s Masterclass presentation, which has been made available for all SIRF members to review and can be found with a search using the term "hydraulics"