Oliver finds twists in machinery

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 11, 2006

Newly appointed Food and Beverage Sector Manager has to predict if and when key pieces of machinery may fail.

Mark Oliver is a man who understands machines.

Most of his working day is spent listening to and analysing machine vibrations.

Newly appointed Food and Beverage Sector Manager for AV Technology, his job is to predict if and when key pieces of machinery may fail.

He said: "Machines talk and it pays to listen, if machinery fails at the wrong time, many thousands can be spent in lost time, product and replacements".

By monitoring equipment to know when and how it is wearing, we can predict failures and recommend repair or replace items at convenient down-times before they cause permanent damage or become an unexpected and expensive exercise".

Oliver is part of the Condition Monitoring Division, and is responsible for the design, implementation and management of continuous improvement and multi-technique equipment condition monitoring.

This takes place at various customer sites covering industrial sectors such as food and beverages, oil and gas, chemicals and pulp and paper.

He uses the latest technological equipment to monitor machinery vibrations as well as oil analysis, thermography and ultrasound that tell him exactly how each machine is running and what condition it is in.

He then draws on this data to provide recommendations for customers.

His specialisation in condition monitoring began early in his career.

After completing his apprenticeship and diploma in electrical engineering, Oliver began work as Environmental Test Engineer for Ferranti Technologies.

He then joined AV Technology in 1995 as Vibration Engineer and progressed to Consulting Engineer in 1999.

He was promoted to Senior Consulting Engineer in 2004.

In his new role, he develops and manages customised predictive maintenance programmes for food and beverage clients.

"It's been wonderful to grow with a company like AVT", he said.

"They are specialists in condition monitoring and asset maintenance so I have had the opportunity to work on many high-tech machinery condition monitoring programmes, including the condition evaluation of over 2000 items of rotating machine equipment at two of the UK's largest oil refineries, the Shell Stanlow refinery and the BP Grangemouth refinery; working on equipment such as reciprocating compressors, rotary compressors, large crude oil transfer pumps, steam driven generators, pumps, fans, blowers and carrying out linework vibration surveys".

"I have also had the chance to manage condition monitoring activities at several North Sea oil and gas production platforms, floating storage units and onshore gas production terminals".

AVT has serviced organisations all around the world, and Oliver has managed a number of contracts in Europe, so on any given day he could be found flying back and forth to any one of these locations, collecting and analysing data, preparing reports and detailing the condition of the equipment and recommendations on what course of action needs to be taken.

Not all condition monitoring is as simple as observing vibration levels though and he has been through some interesting training to prepare him for unusual situations.

These include being dunked upside down in a survival unit in a helicopter simulator in a swimming pool as part of his offshore survival training.

One of his current projects is a condition monitoring contract with global manufacturer Unilever.

He spends five days a month at the Unilever UK Foods Burton site, monitoring equipment on the FS dry line, which packages powdered soups, the paste-filling line, which fills jars of Marmite and Bovril, and on the yeast extract line.

Oliver said: "I see what I do as being integral to my customers' businesses everywhere".

"Machine failure at critical manufacturing times can be catastrophic to productivity, but by utilising the kind of monitoring that AVT provides, businesses have the fore-knowledge and freedom to be able to plan and prepare more effectively to achieve maximum output".