Plant maintenance, test + measurement
a DGA (dissolved gas analysis) baseline and moisture-control plan. One unit showed rising acetylene and ethylene – a sign of potential arcing – and was taken out for investigation be- fore catastrophic failure. In another unit a flagged moisture trend was managed with online drying, avoiding a costly re- placement. Lumley notes that these are not isolated ‘hero’ stories; they reflect the results obtained when technicians learn, through focused training, to see and measure the things that actually cause failures, and when supervisors build simple routines that make those measurements part of the working week. The bottom line There is nothing abstract about the skills gap in heavy industry; you can hear it in the rattle of a misaligned drive, see it in a milky sight glass, and count it in lost production hours. Closing that gap does not require expensive new technology. It requires disciplined, current, practical training that gives technicians the confidence to do the simple things right, consistently. WearCheck’s training offering is designed to do that. It empowers crews to prevent avoidable failures, extend asset life and make better decisions sooner. Plants that commit to this journey report cleaner systems, fewer urgent callouts, steadier uptime and a maintenance culture that values evidence over guesswork. In conclusion, Lumley reiterates the words of Henry Ford, the engineering pioneer behind the automotive super brand: ‘The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave, is not training them, and having them stay.’ WearCheck runs training courses in different centres around South Africa and for customers across Southern Africa, in person or online, throughout the year, according to a scheduled calendar.
critical gearboxes. Within months, particle counts dropped a grade and water ingress events all but disappeared. Drain intervals returned to planned tar- gets; and the need for a gearset replacement (which had persisted over some time) could be deferred to the next major shutdown. Fewer premature bearing failures. A cement plant sent its fitters to precision alignment and balancing training modules. The team changed its set-up rou- tine (checking base flatness, correcting soft foot, measuring thermal growth, aligning to published tolerances). Over the next quarters, unplanned bear- ing replacements on several fans and conveyors fell sharply, and vibration alarms reduced to manageable levels. Better use of lab data. The operations team at a man- ufacturing plant wanted to move beyond ‘red/green’ oil reports. Maintenance personnel attended an in- terpretation course focused on trend analysis and common failure signatures. The maintenance team now reviews exceptions weekly, opens targeted work orders, and feeds findings back to the lubrication team. Where recurring wear metals on a set of gear- boxes were noted, simple sealing and venting chang- es eliminated dirt ingestion. Reduced electrical risk. After the electrical team of a utilities company attended training, the customer introduced routine thermography. Early inspections found multiple hot connections in a switchboard feeding a high-criticality line. Repairs were scheduled in a short, planned outage – and the risk of an extend- ed trip during peak demand was averted. Transformers monitored, not guessed. After training, the team from a plant with ageing transformers built
For more information visit: www.wearcheck.co.za
Staff from the Eurasian Resources Group (ERG), based in the DRC, attended training on lubrication, oil analysis and results interpretation, with WearCheck consultant Daan Burger.
MAY 2026 Electricity + Control
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