Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation articles from June 2004

Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation archives from June 2004

Vibration monitor.
June 1, 2004... The Octavis vibration monitor detects roiling element bearing failures and unbalanced shaft conditions on pumps, motors, compressors, fans and spindles. It incorporates a MEMS accelerometer, analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, and diagnostic...

Hose.
June 1, 2004... Rated as a full vacuum hose, the BellowsFlex "A" hose has a heat-, flame- and ozone-resistant cover. It features a fuel-resistant NBR tube with helical wire and nylon screen reinforcement. The hose was engineered to handle fuel-fill needs in...

Pneumatic actuator.
June 1, 2004... The Tork-Mate 890 Series extended life pneumatic actuators achieve up to 15 million cycles, maintenance-free. They are suitable for 90- and 180-degree-turn devices such as butterfly valves, ball valves, plug valves and damper valves. They meet...

Harmony in Germany, Japan, Georgia.(Editorial Comments)
June 1, 2004... It's always interesting to visit companies on the other side of the globalization issue. They may be headquartered in the U.S., Europe or Japan, but use the globe as their playing field to serve customers in many countries. One of these is...

Ford closes its oldest plant after 86 years.(Industry Newsline)
June 1, 2004... Ford Motor Co. closed its oldest manufacturing facility last month, the 86-year-old Dearborn Assembly Plant in the company's headquarters city of Dearborn, MI. Built by Henry Ford in 1918, the plant bad outlived its usefulness, according to...

Lift truck maker opens state-of-the-art training center.(Industry Newsline)
June 1, 2004... The Raymond Corp., a Greene, NY-based lift truck manufacturer, opened a state-of-the-art training center last month at its headquarters facility. Designed for Raymond dealers and customers, the 8,000-sq.-ft. Raymond Learning Center includes...

New coating improves B-2 bomber's combat readiness.(Industry Newsline)
June 1, 2004... A new coating for the B-2 stealth bomber will help improve the aircraft's combat readiness by eliminating the need to cover fuselage gaps with tape. Known as alternate high-frequency material (AHFM), the radar-absorbing coating was developed by...

OSHA accepting comments on inspection program.(Industry Newsline)
June 1, 2004... The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it is seeking public comment until July 6 on its Site-Specific Targeting (SST) inspection program to determine the program's effectiveness. The five-year-old program uses OSHA data to...

Boeing settles gender-bias lawsuit.(Industry Newsline)
June 1, 2004... Boeing reached a financial settlement last month in a class-action suit brought by 28,000 current and former female workers in the Puget Sound area. Had it gone to court, the suit would have been among the largest gender-bias suit ever in terms...

Manufacturers expect workforce reductions.(Industry Newsline)
June 1, 2004... U.S. industrial manufacturers expect to reduce their overall workforce by 1.9% over the next 12 months, according to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The group's Manufacturing Barometer for the first-quarter 2004 is based on 80...

Honda of America Mfg.
June 1, 2004... Honda of America Mfg. has begun construction of a $123 million, 234,000-sq.-ft, paint facility at its Marysville, OH, auto plant. When it goes on line in mid-2006, it will use waterborne paint systems to reduce plant emissions, as well as...

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
June 1, 2004... Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., presented 100 high school seniors with $1.12 million in college scholarships at a banquet in Louisville, KY, last month. Winners were chosen from a pool of nearly 10,000 students nationwide nominated by their...

DuPont.
June 1, 2004... DuPont will add a $15 million glass interlayer manufacturing line at its Fayetteville, NC, plant. The line will start up in 2005, and will manufacture SentryGlas interlayers, which are polymer sheets used to make safety glass for autos and...

Dana Corp.
June 1, 2004... Automotive supplier Dana Corp. has opened a new Automotive Systems Group Technology Center near Toledo, OH. The 200,000-sq.-ft. facility features advanced component and system engineering capabilities, along with research and development...

National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS).
June 1, 2004... The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences (NCMS) will host an open meeting about manufacturing trends on June 17 in Ann Arbor, MI. Called "Manufacturing in the Future," the event will include presentations and discussions on topics such as...

Calendar.(Calendar)
June 1, 2004... June 9-10 * Quality Expo; Detroit, MI; Reed Exhibitions; 888-267-3794; quality.reedexpo.com. June 9-13 * SME Annual Meeting; Cincinnati, OH; Society of Manufacturing Engineers; 800-733-4763; sme.org. June 22-25 * ISWM 2004 Conference...

Best practices: Freudenberg-NOK/Cleveland, GA: continuous kaizens: the global automotive seal maker's plan near Atlanta boasts a 2001 Shingo win and a 12-year record of production improvements, thanks to lean initiatives, Six Sigma and daily doses of kaizen activity.(Cover Story)
June 1, 2004... Freudenberg-NOK is a company with much to brag about. The Plymouth, MI-based manufacturer of seals and gaskets, custom rubber products, PTFE components and other products for the automotive industry, is a leader in most of its markets. Its 17...

Let task, disposal rules guide wiper choice.(Tech Check)
June 1, 2004... Each year, industry spends more than $1 billion dollars on task-specific wipers. No longer simply "rags," today's task-specific industrial wipers are available in many sizes, textures and selections specifically suited to maintenance tasks....

Industrial door.(Doors)
June 1, 2004... The RapidRoll 3000 industrial door uses disc-drive technology. Disc modules wind the aluminum slats of the door panel so they do not touch each other. The metal slats are linked with rubberized, steel-reinforced straps. If anything collides...

High-speed door.(Doors)
June 1, 2004... The Podium Forum low-usage, high-speed door features soft-bottom edge technology, a watertight control panel, one through-beam photo sensor and guides, which automatically reinsert into the side guides without human intervention if accidentally...

Storage door.(Doors)
June 1, 2004... The Barrier Glider is a high-speed door available in single-slide and bi-parting configurations. The design includes foam-core panels for insulation without panel-defrost systems. Fiberglass panels are also available. The drive system includes...

Door closer.(Doors)
June 1, 2004... The Series 441BC multi-size door-closer is constructed of cast iron. Available arm types include heavy-duty and heavy-duty stop. Featuring adjustable sweep and latch speeds with separate valves to adjust each speed, the unit can be installed...

AGVs keep fiberglass plant's product moving.(Field Report)
June 1, 2004... PPG is the second-largest global manufacturer of continuous-strand fiberglass. The Chester, SC, plant opened in 1996 and is dedicated to fiberglass rovings production. "Our goal is to push the winding process," says Bernd Brockmueller,...

Nuclear software.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... MAXIMO nuclear asset-management software delivers a framework for integration in a variety of modern methods, including packaged integration for primary ERP and scheduling products. The architecture allows customers to consolidate disparate...

Voice-recognition software.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... With "Talk and Type" voice-recognition software, you can dictate directly into a Windows-based CMMS application. Features include the Microsoft speech-recognition engine; 60,000-word vocabulary, with the ability to add new words; and...

Root-cause software.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... TapRooT software provides one suite of tools to report incidents, analyze root causes, and develop corrective actions in a password-protected environment. The software is written with an SQL database so the program can be set up as a...

Maintenance software.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... The EZ Maintenance software package is designed to track and schedule maintenance for any type of equipment or vehicle. It produces work orders, histories of all maintenance performed, including what was done, by whom and when, along with costs...

Inspection-manager software.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... Inspection Manager software 6.7 is used with hand-held devices to record security inspections, fire--and safety-equipment inspections, property-condition inspections, and property-equipment/HVAC-equipment inspections. Hand-held Palm devices can...

Identification software.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... IDMax software is designed for Direct Part Mark Identification (DPMI), a process that involves directly marking parts with permanent, two-dimensional data-matrix codes. The software tolerates distortions that occur during manufacturing. It...

Data-collection system.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... The FIN Version 3.7 manufacturing data-collection system is a client-server-based software that runs on standard, Windows-based PCs. It integrates with a plant's existing control system to record all data points. The software functions as a...

Motor Management software.(Maintenance Software)
June 1, 2004... The 1-2-3 Approach to Motor Management software tool helps managers maintain their motor fleet to realize cost savings. After inputting data including nameplate, hours of operation and facility electric rates, the information generated by the...

Infrared-camera literature.(New Literature)
June 1, 2004... This sheet offers an overview of the FlexCam portable infrared camera. Descriptions of the features of the radiometric, portable, video-rate camera are accompanied by color-application photos and system specifications. Infrared Solutions...

Material-handling comic book.(New Literature)
June 1, 2004... A picture book featuring manager "Matt Handling," uses caricatures to portray the problem of increasing production to avoid moving overseas. The 12-page, comic-book-style brochure, features ergonomic, material handling products. Southworth...

Building-systems manual.(New Literature)
June 1, 2004... The Metal Building Systems Manual offers updates and information for manufacturers and engineers involved in the metal-building-systems industry. The site discusses cool-roof issues, a library and distance learning. The Metal Building...

Motor handbook.(New Literature)
June 1, 2004... The "AC Motor Protection" guidebook explains how to prevent AC motor failures. It reviews principles of synchronous and induction motors. Section topics include motor-protection requirements, guidelines for calculating settings, and others. ...