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A number of years ago I was hired as project manager to perform a number of capital maintenance projects on an old coal-fired boiler facility at a certain mill. The effort was expected to last a year and represented an expenditure in the low seven figures. I took a look at the facility and said it shouldn't be done.

Instead, I recommended that the money be spent on installing a natural gas package boiler, even though that was going to require extending a gas line several miles. By the way, this was before natural gas had reached its current low prices. Yet, any way I figured it, the payout was fantastic. I worked at my own expense to try to convince management to change paths and fire me (at least for the original purpose for which I was hired), to no avail.

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RMR Mechanical: We perform as planned. Visit us at www.rmrmechanical.com!

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Sometimes we get so caught up in doing maintenance on an existing asset that we cannot see that there is a better way. Sometimes we are trapped by the accountants and finance department--the old assets are still on the books at a ridiculously elevated value and cash is too tight to do things right.

Nevertheless, you should raise a stink.

In another old mill where I worked thirty years ago, we still had motor-generator sets as our "state-of-the-art" DC drive. These were controlled by cabinets full of vacuum tubes. Every shutdown was a thrill and electricians walked around with cases of these old tubes, several of which had to be replaced on every shutdown, in order to get these creaky old machines to start up again. At the same time, the CEO of this company rejected a batch of new wooden file cabinets purchased for his floor in headquarters because the grain in the wood on the face of the cabinets did not line up from one cabinet to the next.

His priorities seemed a bit out of alignment, wouldn't you agree?

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Fulton Systems: Our designs are built on proven methods and technology. www.fultonsystems.com.

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We have many ancient equipment installations on which we should stop doing maintenance. Agitators in far off waste water treatment ponds are one of my favorites. Managers never go out there, so the hourly maintenance people are doomed to keep replacing the impellers and drive systems on the same old agitators. There have been so many improvements in this area that the payoff on replacing agitators is often in weeks when someone finally gets around to doing something about it.

There are few distinct pieces of equipment that are worth keeping when they are past twenty years of age. Let me clarify by example: you may have a winder whose frame, bed rolls, and so forth are in great shape, even though it is forty years old. But what about the drive? What about the controls? What about the slitter section? All of these items can be replaced on their own, resulting in more uptime, less manual work, and, in the case of a slitter section, safer, faster and more accurate changes. It should be a straightforward cost/benefit calculation to determine when replacement makes sense.

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Maintenance Month Bronze Sponsors:

Miami Machine: Miami Machine specializes in repairs and provides annual inspections for your reel spools, suction roll or felt rolls. Visit our website at www.miamimachine.com.

Seneca Steel Erectors: A mechanical contractor that specializes in boiler repair, conveyor repair, and custom metal fabrication. www.senecasteelerectors.com.

Philadelphia Mixing Solutions: We are the mixing experts. Visit www.philamixers.com.

Essco is Trusted for Performance. Visit www.esscoincorporated.com.

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Back to the old mill with the vacuum tubes. The powerhouse was obsolete by 1970 and the paper machines by 1980. They were manufacturing a good grade, a grade that is still viable today. However, the mill finally got in a real "Catch 22" situation. If you considered replacing the powerhouse, you had to realize you were putting a state-of-the-art powerhouse next to obsolete paper machines. If you considered replacing the paper machines, the opposite was true. Finally, the old place was closed and demolished.

This happens to all mills someday and maybe this one was taken as far as it could go. However, one has to wonder if things might have turned out differently if replacements had been timely.

What do you think? Are you working in a state-of-the-art mill or a museum? You can take our quiz this week to express your opinion.

For safety this week, I don't have to tell you what obsolete equipment does for overall safety. Or do I? It is a subtractive experience.

Be safe and we'll talk again next week.

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