"Condition monitoring plays a primary role in maintaining our extensive fleet of construction plant and equipment," Eric Baker, Concor Plant's technical manager, says. "This proactive approach has paid significant dividends in terms of eliminating mechanical failures and generally optimising our fleet's operational efficiency and performance. Since we engaged oil and fuel analysis specialists WearCheck to initiate a continuous programme of oil and wear particle analysis on our plant in 2009, the savings have been substantial."

Condition monitoring is a key element in planned maintenance, allowing remedial action to be taken to avoid the high cost and lost time consequences of component failure. Condition monitoring of plant and equipment is based on trend analysis and regular sampling. Concor Plant has close to four hundred major items being monitored on the WearCheck system and Baker says this goes a long way towards ensuring the reliability of the fleet.

All large frontline machines fitted with hour meters are monitored at regular intervals at site level to flag potential problems, notably in regard to the high cost items such as drive train components. The WearCheck system has been implemented at all Concor Plant sites, where samples of diesel, oil and coolant are taken from equipment at predetermined times. For example, engine oil is sampled every 250 hours. Each piece of equipment has a unique plant number and each component is tested and flagged separately

Samples are analysed at a central WearCheck laboratory and where these tests flag a potential problem, additional testing is carried out to identify the root cause. At least 90% of all samples are processed within 24 hours. Concor Plant sites have internet access to the data on their specific machines, while the company's head office can access the data for the entire fleet. The system also allows managers and directors to receive critical and urgent data.

The WearCheck system generates a comprehensive in-depth report on the actual condition of a component, provides a diagnosis and recommends the corrective action to be taken.

"The big issue is being able to identify a potential problem before it develops into a full blown failure," Baker says. "The analysis data is represented in a way that indicates the level of urgency and each of our sites is responsible for responding with the appropriate action to the sample data each and every day."

If internet connectivity problems prevent the sites from accessing their data, a backup system is in place whereby a dedicated individual at Concor Plant head office monitors all samples and alerts sites to critical and urgent issues.

"Although the reports we receive are extensive, giving us information such as contaminants present, status of lubrication and viscosity, the system is only as good the person monitoring it," Baker comments. "Site personnel are required to provide online feedback and should this not occur, the component will continue to be flagged on the system."

About Concor Plant
Concor Plant is a separate division within the Concor Group that supplies plant and equipment, on a rental basis, to all group operating divisions: Concor Civils, Concor Roads & Earthworks, Concor Engineering and Concor Mining.

Concor Plant maintains a fleet commensurate with the operating entities' activities, ranging from concrete mixers and batch plants to road-surfacing equipment and 125 t excavators for the mining division.