Frequently Asked Questions
Let’s Customise A Solution
The point of difference between Howler Alert Technologies and its competitors is that we provide completely customisable solutions for our Clients’ condition monitoring needs. If there is a problem, Howler will find a way to solve it.
Why should I do condition monitoring?
If production uptime, reducing labour costs, reducing energy consumption, reducing inventory costs or meeting an acceptance criterion is important to you, then condition monitoring is a vital element in achieving this. By using condition monitoring technologies, machine and component defects can be detected at early stages. These defects can either be mitigated or regularly monitored for rate of deterioration. When the rate of deterioration starts to accelerate, repair or replacement of the machine/component can be scheduled into existing maintenance windows. This has the benefit of greatly reducing, if not eliminating, machine and component failures while minimising interruption to production.
How much does condition monitoring cost?
A better question to ask is, how much does it cost not to do condition monitoring? More often than not, if only one or two critical machines are prevented from having a failure, the condition monitoring service used to detect that possible failure has more than paid for itself.
How accurate is the diagnostics?
The accuracy of diagnostics is only as accurate as the data collected and the experience of the person analysing that data. That is why Howler stresses the importance of experience when it comes to condition monitoring services. If the data is not collected correctly, it does not matter the experienced of the person who is analysing it, the results will be inaccurate as the data is inaccurate. Likewise, it doesn’t matter how well the data is collected if the person analysing the data does not have a good knowledge and comprehension of the data they are looking at.
When the data is correctly collected, and an experienced person is analysing that data, condition monitoring is highly accurate.
Which service do I need?
This depends of the failure modes and probability of failure of the machines or components. The three primary condition monitoring technologies are vibration analysis, thermography and oil analysis.
Vibration analysis is widely used as the primary condition monitoring technology due its ability to detect a broad range of issues in a broad range of machines and at very early stages.
Thermography is primarily used when temperature differentials are a leading symptom of a possible failure.
Oil analysis is used to understand the condition of the oil and of the machine through fluid properties, contamination and wear debris.
How frequently should surveys be carried out?
This question depends on how critical the machine or component is to production, how long it will take to get a replacement, how expensive it would be to replace/repair the machine if a failure was to occur and if the skills and labour are available if a failure was to occur. The more critical, the more frequent condition monitoring surveys would be carried out. Online monitoring systems offer the ultimate protection by providing 24-7 monitoring.
What Industries does Howler service?
If you have a critical machine, Howler can provide the appropriate condition monitoring service no matter what industry.
Why should I choose Howler?
Three words – EXPERIENCE, TECHNOLOGY and SERVICE.
Experience does matter when it comes to condition monitoring as it determines the accuracy of diagnostics. Howler comprises of a highly experienced team of engineers and technicians based in both Western Australia and South Australia, servicing Australia-wide.
Howler is the only company in Australia that has developed their own cutting-edge Australian made and owned vibration monitoring technology. All of our monitoring services are done here on-shore – you won’t be outsourced.
Howler prides itself in providing a customised service for our Client’s condition monitoring needs. If you have a problem, Howler will find a way to solve it.
Why are experienced technicians important?
When it comes to reliability services, experience does matter. For example, it takes many years of collecting and analysing vibration data from all sorts of machines and from all sorts of industries to build up the expertise to be both confident and accurate in vibration analysis. Howler Alert Technologies senior vibration analysts have decades of experience in a multitude of industries.