Condition monitoring at a continuous coal handling facility

Continuous coal handling facilities operate worldwide and are used for stocking of and movement of coal at power stations and loading/unloading of ships. Typical systems cost millions of pounds to install and operate, any failure due to poor or ineffective maintenance can result in severe financial penalties for operators and carriers. The Port of Tyne Authority has such a facility which was installed in 1985 and has relied on a planned preventative maintenance program, one of the major requirements of this system requires items of equipment on the plant to be shutdown at regular intervals to allow for inspection and maintenance work to be undertaken, the frequency of which are based on recommendations by original manufacturers of the equipment which may or may not be justified by the condition of the machinery. One of the first areas to be analysed and investigated over a period of 1 year was debris analysis.