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Set Up Predictive Maintenance

Rotating equipment, such as motors, pumps, fans, and compressors, often shows subtle changes in its vibration weeks before it fails. Spotting those changes takes sensing technology and vibration expertise that most maintenance teams don't have in-house. Predictive maintenance in MaintainX® uses the vibration monitoring program to detect those early warning signs on your behalf. When MaintainX vibration analysts find a problem that needs attention, they create a work order for your team with a recommendation, so you can prevent a breakdown and optimize your maintenance schedule.

Unlike the other use cases, predictive maintenance doesn't have a manual configuration path or a monitor-based path. The vibration monitoring program is fully managed. MaintainX sets up the sensors and the data pipeline, and MaintainX vibration analysts review the data, so you don't build an automation or a monitor yourself.

Requirements​

  • Assets in MaintainX for the rotating equipment that you want to protect, such as motors, pumps, fans, and compressors.
  • Operations in the United States or Canada. The vibration monitoring program is currently available only in those two countries.
  • Your MaintainX representative. Vibration monitoring isn't a self-serve feature, so contact your representative to get started. If you already own qualifying ERBESSD INSTRUMENTS® sensors, contact MaintainX to learn how you can sign up using the sensors you already have.
  • Administrator access in your organization, to view the integration.

Step 1: Identify Your Assets​

Choose the rotating assets where an unexpected failure costs you the most, and work with your MaintainX representative to confirm which ones to instrument. Vibration data can reveal several kinds of mechanical trouble, including:

  • Bearing wear
  • Looseness
  • Gear wear
  • Misalignment
  • Imbalance

Start with a small set of critical assets, so you can see how the program works before you expand it. Assets can have more than one sensor, so a single asset can show many meters.

Step 2: Work with MaintainX to Set Up the Program​

MaintainX performs the implementation. You don't install or configure anything yourself. MaintainX and its sensor partner:

  • Coordinate installation dates and connectivity to MaintainX.
  • Install the sensors and register each one to its asset, which links the sensor's readings to the correct asset.
  • Connect the integration to your organization.
  • Confirm that sensor data is reaching MaintainX.

For more information, see About the ERBESSD INSTRUMENTS Integration.

Step 3: Confirm Data Is Arriving​

After MaintainX registers a sensor, check that its readings are reaching MaintainX:

  1. From the sidebar, select Asset Monitoring > Meters.

  2. Find the meters whose names are prefixed with the sensor's serial number.

    Each sensor reports six meters: Signal, Battery, Horizontal Velocity RMS, Vertical Velocity RMS, Axial Velocity RMS, and Temperature.

  3. Select a meter to open it, and then, in the Readings section, select See All Readings to confirm that new readings are arriving.

Allow up to one hour after the gateway connects for the first readings to arrive. For more information, see Verify Data Is Flowing.

Step 4: Act on Work Orders from MaintainX Analysts​

MaintainX uses internal AI models to detect and classify faults in your vibration data, and a MaintainX vibration analyst reviews each one on your behalf. Your team doesn't review these alerts. When the analyst determines that your team should act, they create a work order for the asset. It appears in MaintainX like any other work order, and it has already been reviewed by a specialist who determined that it warrants your team's attention.

  1. Open the work order, and read the analyst's recommendation.
  2. Inspect the asset, and do the work.
  3. Complete the work order's procedure. The procedure asks for specific feedback, such as whether the initial inspection found the issue and what steps resolved it.
  4. Close the work order.

Completing the procedure gives MaintainX real-world confirmation of what the analyst's finding predicted. That feedback helps refine the models against your organization's own equipment over time, so the more consistently your team completes the procedures, the better the program gets at catching real issues.

Common Issues​

Watch for the following common issues as you use predictive maintenance:

  • No readings from a sensor: Check that the sensor's meters are receiving readings, and if they aren't, see Not Seeing Data in MaintainX.
  • No work orders for a while: A quiet period is often healthy. Analysts create a work order only when they determine that your team should act on a finding.
  • Procedures left incomplete: If your team closes work orders without completing the procedure, MaintainX doesn't get the feedback it uses to improve the models. Ask technicians to complete every procedure.
  • Moving or replacing a sensor: To register a new sensor, or to register a sensor to a different asset, contact your MaintainX representative.