IMC-2017 Learning Session - 40:25
by Alejandro Erives & Jason Zielinski, Stepan Company

Stepan is a chemical company producing specialty and intermediate chemicals such as surfactants, polymers, and other specialty products. A broad description of our goals include improving asset utilization, reducing cost, and improving efficiencies.

The P-F Interval is a widely known term / concept in maintenance and reliability circles. The time it takes for a defect to grow from a detectable size to a functional failure (i.e. “the P-F Interval”) is critical in determining condition based monitoring frequencies. Additionally, an understanding of the P-F interval is helpful in determining maintenance planning / scheduling priorities for corrective actions, once a defect is discovered.

Except for special studies or applications, the P-F interval is widely seen as highly subjective. However, through careful analysis of several years of condition monitoring data we have been able to quantify this time interval in our facility. We will show that being armed with a better understanding of the P-F interval at our facility can improve maintenance and planning efficiencies, especially as they relate to work generated from our predictive maintenance (PdM) programs.