Show of hands… how many of you out there are familiar with Abengoa BioEnergy in Colwich, KS? Okay, maybe not that many…unless you’re in the market for ethanol. If you are, then you already recognize them as a major producer of bioethanol and biodiesel and a subsidiary of Abengoa S.A. (Sevilla, Spain). As you can probably imagine, the production of ethanol is hardly a short, simple process - which means that there is a fair amount of equipment involved. That’s where PPM comes into the picture.
Utilizing their years of experience and formidable knowledge of all kinds of pumps, motors, bearings, and many other kinds of equipment, the team at Peterson Predictive Maintenance have entered into an annual agreement with Abengoa BioEnergy to provide complete Infrared Thermal Imaging Services and Ultrasound Bearing Trending Program. By collecting and analyzing this data, PPM will not only be able to trend and predict potential failures, allowing for scheduled downtime for maintenance and repairs, but they will also put Abengoa ahead of the predictive maintenance curve for their industry in the central United States.
LogicMaze is proud to have Peterson Predictive Maintenance as one of our clients and we are happy to see them prosper with their own growing client base. We have had occasion to blog about PPM on several occasions (a few recent posts are here, here, and here).
P.S. On a small but cool eye-candy note, we have updated the audio samples from their Sample Gallery page to include visual feedback for the sound files. Each sample is interactive in that you can readily move to any point in the sound file and see the corresponding waveform. Enjoy!
We have some strange goings-on in Hutchinson today. LogicMaze can neither confirm nor deny that former Guns’N'Roses front man, Axl Rose was spotted ’shuffling for bucks’ on a 4th Avenue street corner earlier today. When a (semi-) reliable source was sought for verification, she was quoted as saying, “definitely AXL [woo-hoo baby]!” LogicMaze will not rest until this rumor can be verified or laid to rest. Such is our commitment to the truth and pointless video clips.
Peterson Predictive Maintenance. That’s right. Get used to hearing about them because these folks are on a national quest to save as many asses as they can. Indulge me for a moment and I’ll be happy to explain. Or you can check out more information about these high-tech predictive maintenance gurus here.
Let’s just say that you work in a manufacturing facility, distillation plant, or other medium to large scale industrial complex. You’ve got all kinds of motors, pumps, switch boxes, fuses, relays, etc. in there, right? And naturally anything that has moving parts or electricity running through it has the potential to break down to some extent if not the complete kaflooey.
Now how do you suppose regular Joe’s and Josephine’s like us would go about trying to tell if one of these pieces of equipment were going on the fritz and about to fail (i.e. kaflooey)? Why, we’d sit on it of course!
Okay, not really. But our natural instincts are most often to examine that equipment with the most basic diagnostic tools available… ourselves. It’s fairly common for a person to put their hand on orlean in close to listen to a piece of questionable equipment. Certainly more sensitive than using one’s Southern hemisphere, but far from the best idea to determine potential failure.
So, Joe rolls up his sleeve and gingerly places his hand on the housing for the large electrical motor he’s concerned about. And putting a damper on Joe’s day and that evening’s card game are the second degree burns he gets for his trouble.
Or Joe (this poor guy) leans in to listen to the main switch box for the plant before he opens it, figuring he’d be able to hear if there was anything abnormal inside. That night Joe’s explaining to his wife where his eyebrows and half of his ballcap went because of the flash that came from an arcing fuse inside there.
They can tell you when a motor, electrical switch gear, or anything else, is hotter than it should be without touching it (even from 100ft away). They can hear dangerous arcing caused by loose connections without even getting close to it. They can see through concrete to detect leaks in buried pipelines. They can detect compressed air or gas leaks at a distance and then target them with pinpoint accuracy. Because of their knowledge and experience, the list of uses for their services goes on and on.
But you don’t have to take if from me. I’m guilty of having used the human thermometer, too. Go and check out www.petersonpredict.com and see what I’m talking about. There are many examples there and much better explanations of the services they provide. It’s worth it. After all, the ass that you save may be your own.
They think they’re so smart. With all of their talk and their sarcasm. They said that it wouldn’t be possible.
But that’s exactly the kind of attitude that lights the fire in our collective bellies. They said it couldn’t be done - that you couldn’t put Phil Collins in a Jeep and jump it over the Royal Gorge. We said, “neener-neener!” And then we did the sucker in Photoshop and gave high-fives all around the office (well, all except Cody - we know how often he washes his hands).
You see, that’s the kind of can-do spirit that we take with all of our work and all of our clients. Alright, so with everything else we actually DO the impossible instead of faking the impossible - but you get the idea.
The same thing goes for jeepsandstuff.com These folks have the same kind of verve, the same moxy when it comes to providing you with a huge selection of jeep accessories at excellent prices. Sure, no one is going to write out a screenplay with this kind of stuff. But if you’re a Jeep owner and want to trick out your vehicle, you’ll be glad you checked them out.
And if you feel compelled to jump the Royal Gorge in your Jeep to express your happiness with these awesome deals, all we can say is… give us a heads-up so we can take a picture!
We’ve seen a number of impressive changes for this LogicMaze client lately. One item of note includes the keynote speech that Chuck Peterson, President and CEO of Peterson Predictive Maintenance, gave at the UltrasoundWorld III “Top Gun” Conference in November of 2006. We understand if they were impressed by Chuck’s knowledge and experience. But more recently, we have been tracking other developments for PPM that show just how much this company is growing.
They think they’re so smart. With all of their talk and their sarcasm. They said that it wouldn’t be possible.
