Microlog MX data collector helps to balance fans

SKF's Microlog MX portable data collection system is enabling Daniels Fans, the award-winning manufacturer of high-temperature industrial fans, to ensure the quality of products before they are delivered, as well as allowing the company to offer outstanding levels of maintenance and support to clients across the world.

Founded in 1977 by Neville Daniels, the company is now a leading supplier to aluminium and steel heat treatment furnace manufacturers worldwide. Export sales recently increased by 93 per cent in three years and now account for over 80 per cent of annual turnover - an achievement that was recognised in 2004 when the company received the Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

Before the SKF system was implemented, this international reach made effective quality control and condition monitoring difficult. Daniels Fans' service engineers were forced to haul 'big and bulky' instruments around the world to carry out the dynamic balancing process required on its high-speed fans before serious damage to bearings or other components could occur. This equipment had to be stowed in the aircraft hold, often suffering damage on long flights and resulting in additional costs.

Compact, rugged and effective

With a need to find something more compact, rugged and effective, the team looked to SKF for a replacement, based on the company's experience and expertise. SKF's recommendation was the Microlog MX, a leading-edge, high-performance instrument designed to re-define traditional approaches to vibration analysis and simplify industrial maintenance, servicing and inspection techniques. In addition to being compact, simple to operate and rugged, the new device offers a combination of performance and flexibility that is claimed to be unmatched by other products currently on the market. For the service engineers, it proved very useful, enabling fans to be checked both before shipping and also on-site if required.

Neville Daniels, director and founder of Daniels Fans, comments: "Not only did the Microlog MX prove to be an ideal tool for on-site inspection, maintenance and balancing, but we are also able to use it as part of our in-house quality control system by checking each fan before we despatch it. This gives us a comprehensive printed record of each fan during its lifecycle, and helps us to solve customer problems quickly once the fan is installed, ensuring that furnace downtime, and therefore cost, is minimised.

"Furthermore, by adding the additional analyser and bump test modules, we now have a single, powerful, multi-purpose tool that also lets us analyse the vibration of a fan, and to balance it accurately if required. That way we make sure that the customer receives a quality product ready to install and commission."

Support through seminars

The company's service engineers have been further supported by attending Noise and Vibration in Industry seminars run at the SKF Condition Monitoring Centre in Livingston, which give a comprehensive introduction to vibration analysis for beginners and intermediate engineers.

Neville Daniels, continues: "By giving our service engineers the best tools for the job and sharing their expert knowledge of condition monitoring techniques with us, SKF's support has benefited our business immensely. We are proud of the world-class service that we offer our clients and, through using the Microlog system, this level of service is now even higher."