Fall 2006, Vol. 3, Issue 3

Future Y‑12 Technologies: Wireless technology aids maintenance

Technologies such as the wireless condition-based maintenance will improve work processes for many Y‑12 employees. Click image for larger view.

Researchers at the Y‑12 National Security Complex pursue improving processes and tasks for the NWC. Wireless condition-based maintenance, which Y‑12 researcher David Mee presented at this year's NNSA Future Technologies Conference, is one such advancement.

Employees throughout Y‑12 rely on the information we collect.” — Marc Lambo

This wireless technology, which operates within security parameters, makes employees' jobs more concise, which benefits production workers. “The wireless condition-based maintenance technology improves maintenance,” said Michelle Foster, a maintenance engineer with Facilities, Infrastructure and Services. “It can tell us the condition of a machine, so we then have the information needed to maintain the machine properly, which results in the machine operating in a more reliable way.

Marc Lambo, also of FI&S, agreed. “The process is now streamlined,” he said. “A wireless device gathers the data automatically and saves a lot of time in the field. Data is automatically downloaded to our computers. We still walk around the site to gather data, but with the wireless technology, our fieldwork time can be focused on in-depth analysis and not routine data collection.

Wireless condition-based maintenance is used on 11 machines at Y‑12. Mee described the technology as “sensors waking up each day to collect data that is transmitted back through a wireless base station to the database.” The database helps analysts Foster and Lambo identify sensors that are above limits, and they then set out to determine what is causing the problem. “The analyst compares the response to fault frequencies calculated for the system,” Mee explained. “Once the cause is determined, the analyst inputs work requests and notifies the responsible party.”

This technology improves maintenance because workers receive more timely information.

Parts can be ordered in advance of the maintenance work rather than waiting until the equipment catastrophically fails,” Mee said. “The high-limit notification information that is collected allows analysts to predict what part may be failing. As a result, replacement parts can be procured before the part causes failure.

According to Foster, wireless data collection gathers the information needed to do analyses in order to determine the condition of the machines. “We make recommendations for repairs based on analysis of the data,” Foster explained.

All organizations want their equipment to work properly so Y‑12's missions can be accomplished,” said Lambo. “The greatest advantage of any condition-based maintenance system is that it shows the beginning of a malfunction, which allows engineers, managers and operators to have control on how to handle the maintenance before it is actually needed.

Plans are under way to extend the scope of wireless condition-based maintenance efforts at Y‑12. This technology is expected to be cost-effective for the Y‑12 National Security Complex. Data collection cost and incidents of catastrophic failure will decrease, and equipment up-time will improve.

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