Case Studies
Kawerau Tissue Plant Risk Study
New Zealand
Client: Carter Holt Harvey
Service: Risk Monitor
Carter Holt Harvey Kawerau Tissue Plant commissioned machinemonitor® to undertake a remnant life study on their main process refiner motors.
These motors operated on a 24 hours shift and the production of tissue is dependent on their continuous operation. The business required an understanding of the forward reliability of these critical assets given that they had no spares and was facing a 48 week delivery for a replacement motor. Machinemonitor® applied its innovative ‘risk modelling' package to understand the condition of the machines and their failure risk.
The machinemonitor® approach delivered the following outcomes to Carter Holt Harvey
- A confident understanding that the failure risk on the operating motors was low and an acceptable risk to the business.
- A move from time based, to condition based maintenance
- A strategic recovery plan for managing unforseen forced outages
- Inspection test plan directed at monitoring the predominant failure mechanisms in the machines
- Progressive risk modelling
- Vendor linking to facilitate machine recovery
- Delay of capital expenditure
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Gas Platform Critical Motor Monitoring
Off Shore
Client: Woodside
Services: Partial Discharge Analysis
Risk Monitor
This client operates a gas platform in the Timor Sea which has 3 High Voltage induction motors at the facility. A need was identified to understand the condition of the stator windings in the motor. machinemonitor® was engaged to develop a monitoring program to meet the clients need. Using on-line partial discharge testing and our ‘Risk Monitor' product a program was developed to undertake routine testing.
To reduce the cost & logistics of sending a specialist to site every 6 months for testing, local staff were trained in data collection. This meant once data had been collected and transmitted back to machinemonitor®, a specialist engineer was able to undertake analysis, model risk and publish determinations and a test report all from an office over 2000km's away.
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Remote Power Station Recovery
Papua New Guinea
Client: Barrick Gold
Services: Failure Investigation
Consulting
Repair Audit
This remote power station supplies power to a major gold mining operation. A major systems disturbance resulted in 4 of the 8 operational units at the station failing with stator earth faults. machinemonitor® was engaged to assist the client in understanding the failure, specifying repairs, auditing and expediting repairs and recommissioning. This included:
- Participation in Root Cause Analysis
- Specification development
- Vendor qualification
- Workshop audits
- Tender evaluations
- Expediting
- Witness testing
- Commissioning
The repairs where conducted in 4 facilities on the east coast of Australia. The project was completed within 6 weeks, at which time the station was back in full production.
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SAG Mill Motor Programmed Rewind
New Zealand
Client: Newmont
Services: Inspections
Consulting
Repair Management
During a visual inspection & condition assessment on the SAG Mill it was identified there was an insulation anomaly in the rotor which exposed the business to the risk of unexpected failure. Machinemonitor was engaged to design and execute a project to replace the rotor windings in a 10 day shutdown period. The project included;
- Specification preparation
- Global tendering
- Tender evaluation
- Vendor audits ( Dalian China & Auckland NZ)
- Witness testing of coils made in China
- Outage management
- Acting as owners superintendant on rewind works
- Commissioning
The project was completed on time and on budget ($250k) delivering a reliable asset back to the business and a net saving of $700k by opting for an on-site planned repair compared to a traditional off-site repair.
