Any physician will tell you that preventing illness is much more effective than trying to cure it. The same can be said of the health of your plant.
Like a doctor uses diagnostic equipment to identify health issues before they become serious, pressure gauges are invaluable tools to help warn you of problems and mishaps before they can do significant damage.
The Problem of Reaction, Not Action
Implementing an effective predictive maintenance program can save facilities as much as 12 percent in lost resources and downtime when compared to a reactive approach. However, more than 55 percent of those responsible for industrial plant maintenance described their maintenance activity as reactive rather than active in nature, according to a U.S. Department of Energy study.
How Gauges Can Help
Gauges can identify issues before they become bona fide problems. A mechanical gauge can serve as a low cost backup for your monitoring software (or an entry point to predictive maintenance if you do not have monitoring software). When gauges specifications are appropriate for applications gauges can:
- Detect signs of degradation in process performance
- Diagnose causes of system and production disruptions
- Predict how long a piece of equipment can be safely and economically run
- Identify potentially critical problems that could cause catastrophic failures
The Importance of the Right Gauge in the Right Place
Gauge specifications are determined based on factors such as the temperature, pressure and media involved in the process and can vary for each gauge location. As a result, pressure gauge spec sheets are often complicated, which can make selecting the proper instrumentation difficult. But getting the right gauge in the right place is essential to plant safety. A misapplied gauge can fail and prevent you from identifying an issue before it turns into a safety incident.
Implementing a preventive maintenance program can avert potential problems for your plant, and gauges can provide the indicators you need to protect your people and operations.WIKA’s Full Audit Service Team (FAST) is ready to take care of your gauges to help lower costs, increase plant safety, and reduce downtime.