Apr. 3, 2018 - At PaperWeek Canada 2018 in Montreal, Que., I attended a reliability session on February 7; two of the presentations were given by J.D. Irving employees on how they improved reliability in their paper mill in Saint John, N.B. There has been a focus on fostering a sustainable reliability process over the last several years, which has had an impressive payback. The first of these presentations was given by Tony Bass and Sean McKinley, both lubrication technicians at the mill.

Jan. 31, 2018 - It’s likely you have solids build-up if you have water or fluid in your process system. Solids build-up can cause trouble in the production process. Having a basic knowledge about particle size measurement, total suspended solids, fluid types and filtration screen basics is helpful when determining the correct filtration system to implement or when troubleshooting a challenging system.

Nov. 29, 2017 - Motion Industries, a distributor of maintenance, repair, and operation replacement parts and a wholly owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, has announced that Motion Canada TechCan Services in Edmonton, Alta., is now authorized as an SKF Certified Rebuilder – Gearboxes, as well as an SKF Certified Rebuilder – Conveyor Pulleys.

Nov. 22, 2017 - The adage “work smarter, not harder” applies to all of us. If a simple improvement can save you time, money and resources, it’s well worth the initial investment.

Jul. 20, 2017 - Almost every paper mill using forming fabrics has one — a mechanical tension gauge to measure the tension of paper machine clothing, mostly forming fabrics. When these instruments are not in perfect condition, they can cause serious problems, such as torn fabrics, too narrow and/or too long fabrics, and bearing failure.

Jul. 18, 2017 - Rexnord’s newest whitepaper, Avoid Failure and Downtime: Imperatives to Specify Gear Drives, details how to increase reliability, uptime and profitability by selecting the correct gear drive.

In a typical manufacturing plant, descriptions of maintenance practices are fairly easy to relate to production floor activity. But at Abitibi Consolidated's Belgo paper mill in Shawinigan, Quebec, most production processes are hidden inside mazes of piping and machinery that reveal few secrets to the non-specialist.

Typically, managers hesitate to initiate a cost-cutting project in this area for fear that parts critical to operations may not be available when needed. And the numbers of each individual part-typically one or two-may look too small to yield meaningful cost savings.