Up Time Magazine - February/March 2009 - (Page 45) Default Action – No Scheduled Maintenance If we actively reject condition-based, restoration/discard and failure finding tasks, the default decision (except where there are safety and/or environmental consequences) is no scheduled maintenance. Fix it when it breaks and live with the consequences. Only you and your organization can decide if this is acceptable. > http://www.rohsusa.com/ • Find out where your electronic components are sourced • Consider reviewing your procedures for handling and installing circuit boards • Ask questions of your electronic equipment suppliers • When you get their response – ask some more questions • Make your judgments and manage the risks based on the best information you can obtain Derek spent twenty years working in British Rail as a control and systems engineer. It was while working in this capacity that he became heavily involved with RCM – an involvement that has continued for the last 18 years. He left the rail industry in 1997 and moved to the US working as an RCM consultant across a wide range of industries. In 2003 he joined Cargill and, working with Doug Plucknette (Allied Reliability), implemented standards and training for their RCM program. He recently joined a mining company based in Utah as Principal Advisor – Asset Management. He was a founding member of the Institute of Asset Management, a member of the SMRP Standards Committee and gained his CMRP certification in 2000. He is an active member of AMP and has presented papers at numerous conferences on subjects including RCM, Standards Development, Human Error, Change Management and Procedure Based Maintenance. E-mail: derek_burley@mac. com B EST TOOLS for Precision Oil Sampling. The Redesign In the long term, redesign offers the most promise. but at the same time, is most unappealing due to the time, effort and cost involved. Was It Worth It? When all is said and done, was it reasonable to go Pb-free? The potential for premature obsolescence could lead to more devices being discarded and it is still not clear whether the proposed substitutes are more toxic and waste more energy during production than the Pb solder they are replacing. There is also some evidence (as yet unsubstantiated) that Pb does not actually leach from circuit boards, because it doesn’t migrate in the manner that Pb in paint or gasoline does. What does seem clear is that there are no easy answers. Just because your PLC, pressure sensor, gas detector etc. was not made in Europe does not mean that the circuit boards or components that are inside the box were not manufactured with Pb-free solder! More than 80% of all electronic components are made in Asia, but we impose the specifications on them. The questions we have to ask ourselves are, “What did we specify?” and “What should we specify in future?” Remember the Swiss watch making company product recall mentioned earlier that reportedly cost $1 billion? They were later granted a permanent exemption from the RoHS directive for its exports within the European Union and were allowed to put Pb back in the solder. A true representative sample is a key first step in obtaining quality information from oil analysis. Now obtaining those samples with consistency and ease is possible using Trico’s line of precision oil sampling products. Trico has a complete line of innovative sampling supplies and accessories, including large bore and high pressure sampling ports, pitot tubes, collection bottles and vacuum pumps. Benefits of Oil Sampling • Identifies conditions which can be used to assist in improving equipment reliability • Recognizes conditions that affect component life • Detects required maintenance repairs • Establishes a baseline on the condition of equipment and lubricant References 1. “Mitigation Strategies for Tin Whiskers” M. Osterman, CALCE-EPSC, August 28, 2002 http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/ “Within a whisker of failure” Kurt Jacobsen, The Guardian, April 3, 2008 “Tin Whiskers: The next Y2K problem?” Ivan Amato, FORTUNE Magazine, January 10, 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_whiskers “Metals and Metal Parts: Troubling Tin Tendrils” Larry Adams, November 1, 2006 “Solders in Electronics: A Life-Cycle Assessment Summary” EPA-744-S-05-001, August 2005 What Can We Do As Reliability Professionals? • Research the problem – here are a couple of great websites to get you started: > http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/ www.uptimemagazine.com www.tricocorp.com 800-558-7008 TRICO Oil Sampling_Uptime_2.93751 1 8/1/07 11:32:09 AM 45 http://www.rohsusa.com/ http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/ http://www.tricocorp.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_whiskers http://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/ http://www.uptimemagazine.com
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