During the May SAIMC meeting in Vanderbijlpark we were fortunate to have Andre Joubert from Sasol R&D who presented findings from his recent study on 'Asset management as part of preventative maintenance in modern plants'. The study comprised asset management technologies from both Emerson and Honeywell with the instrumentation utilising mainly the HART communication protocol.
He shared his knowledge gained on the HART technology itself, installation methods used, diagnostic information, the asset management applications, change management requirements, the change in maintenance philosophies that were required and the benefits that they realised from their implementation. Since he was personally involved with the integration of all asset systems and the development of some of the custom interfaces for the Emerson and Honeywell systems he was able to highlight some important advantages and disadvantages relating to such a project.
It was clear from the presentation that in order to get sustainable benefits from using HART technology and the diagnostic information it provides, the whole system needs to be purpose-built to achieve the end result. In this case the provision of an optimal maintenance strategy for the business, which utilises select diagnostic data integrated in a single maintenance management system that is readily available and easy to use.
For the Vaal branch this was another highlight and the number of attendees is steadily increasing at our meetings. Another positive trend is the amount of suppliers that are eager to present their technologies. In July we will be visited by Kobus de Villiers from WIKA Instruments, presenting on analyser technologies and in August by Alan Susman from Sustech Manufacturing presenting on manifold technologies. Hope to see you all there.
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