As my grandma used to say, “When you don’t know how to use your head, you’d better know how to use your legs”. Thanks to a feature on our FALCON data collector I didn’t have to call her to tell her how right she was (again)!
Two of us were performing data collection on a paper machine. It was the first time at this client’s facility for both of us. We had a drawing of the paper machine showing the number of each roll, as viewed from the tending side. Once in the field, finding ourselves in front of the drive side of the machine, it took us some time to identify what’s what.
Now for the data collection on rolls #30 and #40. We climbed the ladder, and once in front of the rolls we asked, “what did we say? Which is roll 30 and which is roll 40?” Neither of us could really remember, and we had left the drawing of the machine downstairs.
A wild guess was just not an option here. Time was running out as they were going to stop the machine and we still had few more rolls to take. Then, my associate remembered the photo option on the FALCON data collector. If we were lucky maybe the person who prepared the initial route had taken photographs of the rolls and data collection points. On checking we found the photos and in just a few seconds we were able to identify roll number 30 and roll number 40 and complete the job in time.
I’d be lying if said I had never taken a reading on the wrong machine. So having an actual photograph of the machine accessible in the field on the data collector is a MUST HAVE. Save time, make it right, and save the machine!
Pictured above Vibration expert M. Desmarets photographing the sensor position to illustrate the route.
