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WearCheck staffer becomes Africa’s first and only CAT IV instructor

November 2022 News

Condition monitoring specialist company, WearCheck, proudly announced that its Asset Reliability Care (ARC) division officially has Africa’s first and only CAT IV instructor, after technical and training manager, Louis Peacock, passed his final exam with flying colours.

CAT certification is achieved through the Mobius Institute, a worldwide provider of education in reliability improvement, condition monitoring and precision maintenance. WearCheck is one of a select few certified Mobius training centres for Africa, and is now the only centre on the continent to boast a local instructor for the CAT IV course.

Training courses are run by WearCheck anywhere and on any date, on demand. The CAT courses include Vibration CAT I (junior analyst and data collector), Vibration CAT II (intermediate analyst and data collector), Vibration CAT III (senior analyst with supervisor roles) and Vibration CAT IV (expert analyst with additional roles and expert techniques).

For the stringent CAT IV certification, students must pass the exam with a score of at least 70% and work through 52 hours of online videos during part one. Part two entails 40 hours of classroom-based, instructor-led coursework, and students must have the required number of years’ condition monitoring experience as per ISO 18436-2, ISO 18436-1, ISO/IEC 17024 and ISO 18436-3 certification.

The CAT IV course covers:

1. Advanced signal processing.

2. Cross-channel measurements.

3. Dynamics (mass/stiffness/damping, natural frequencies, modes).

4. Resonance testing (run-up/coast-down tests, impact tests, ODS, modal analysis).

5. Corrective action (flow control, resonance correction, isolation and damping).

6. Proximity probe and casing measurements.

7. Orbit and centreline plot analysis.

8. Rotor dynamics (natural frequencies, modelling).

9. Journal bearings (design, fluid film instabilities).

10. Flexible rotor balancing.

11. Torsional vibration.

Peacock, who aced the course with marks in the 80-90% range, had this to say: “I relished the challenges presented by the comprehensive course material, and I’m pleased that all the extra hours of hard work have paid off. One thing is for sure: the CAT-IV course transforms a very good vibration analyst into a vibration superhero!”

There are only eight other CAT IV analysts in Africa, but Peacock is the first and only instructor. On a global scale there are only 249 CAT IV analysts, broken down as follows: Africa (9), Asia (55), Australia (29), South America (13), North America (25), Europe (93) and Middle East (25). Following Peacock’s lead, several more WearCheck ARC technicians achieved other CAT certification in the 2021/2022 period: CAT I (12), CAT II (8) and CAT III (2).

The next scheduled in-class CAT IV courses to be run by WearCheck take place from

23-27 January 2023 and 24-28 July 2023: The first 10 students to enrol for the January course (priced at $5000) will undergo 90 hours of video training, 48 additional workshop preparation hours at WearCheck’s Longmeadow training centre, 45 hours of compulsory in-class training and five hours for the certification exam.

To book a Mobius course with WearCheck, check out the available dates and courses at www.wearcheck.co.za/training/mobius-training.html or contact Louis Peacock to book your spot via email ([email protected]).


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