“If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”  Several scholars used and published this analogy in the 1960s, but the idea can be traced back at least a century sooner to a London publication in 1868.  Nowhere is it truer than in the Condition Monitoring space.  Condition monitoring instrumentation and software manufacturers, along with some single technology service providers, have been telling us for years that the only technology that you, the Customer, need to use is the technology that they provide.  In fact, these companies have all created their own versions of the P-F curve that say little to nothing about targeted failure mechanisms and would lead you to believe that in all cases, their specific technology sees all problems first.  Their versions typically look something like these:

You get the point.  They all want you to think that their technology is not only the best but also the only one that you need, regardless of the failure mechanism(s) that your machinery or systems are likely to experience.

At ATS, we know better, which is why we use many different technologies to help identify both damage that has already started as well as root cause failure mechanisms that are in progress and show themselves to us before the actual irreversible damage happens.  Our ultimate goal, of course, is to help you take control of your machinery and system health, by using the right technologies at the right intervals so that you can take the appropriate corrective actions at your convenience and not simply react to failures when they happen.

We are a condition monitoring and evaluation Service provider that focuses on using the best technology to identify issues on your specific machinery and systems.  We are also technology brand agnostic and if you have already made an investment in instrumentation and software we will be happy to utilize what you already own to enhance your program with our expertise.  While we do have the ability to sell certain condition monitoring elements, we only do so within the context of making it easier to provide you with the services that you need to enhance your reliability.  We are not a quota-carrying sales channel partner for any technology supplier.  Our focus is on YOUR success, not theirs!

Contact ATS for an honest discussion about how we can serve you by applying the most appropriate technology (or technologies) to help you to improve your reliability by identifying issues with your machinery and systems in a timely enough manner for you to plan and schedule the corrective action without being surprised by expensive unexpected functional failures.

And for the record, my personal favorite tool is THIS hammer.

Why?  Because I made it myself in a blacksmith shop from a piece of square bar stock and a tree branch.

And as much as I love using the hammer that I made for everything that I can, I know its limitations and do use other tools as appropriate!