UK engineering professionals to tackle top technical questions live at Maintec 2018

East Grinstead, UK, 17^th October 2018 - Today, some of the top maintenance engineering specialists have been announced as speakers for the Reliability Dialogue theatre taking place at Maintec, the UK’s only exhibition dedicated to maintenance, plant and asset management which returns to the NEC, Birmingham on the 6 – 7 November 2018.

The Reliability Dialogue theatre, sponsored by Bosch Rexroth, is just one of the two free-to-attend theatres running at the new-look Maintec event. Featuring over 10 hours of educational content and 34 top engineering speakers, this year’s Maintec programme is delivered under the theme ‘The future of reliability, maintenance and asset management’ and receives official CPD approval from the Society of Operations Engineers.

The event, which is the longest standing exhibition focused on the maintenance industry, has seen an overwhelming confirmation of attendance with engineers from the likes of Airbus, Jaguar Land Rover, GSK, Morrisons, DHL, BAE Systems, British Gas, Bombardier, Tata Steel, AWE, BMW, Johnson & Johnson, Linden, Thames Water and Rolls-Royce having registered to date.

The Reliability Dialogue will give attendees the opportunity to watch panel discussions on some of the most pertinent technical challenges facing the MRO community and ask questions to the panel in the live Q&A.

Opening the Reliability Dialogue theatre on day one, is the Rail and Transport session.  We are all accustomed to trains being replaced by buses due to Planned Engineering Works. How is disruption to services minimised, as the rail companies fight to maintain vehicles and tracks on which they run? Track maintenance machines have become increasingly automated, but certain areas still require the strength and attention of trained operators. Stephen Lewis, Consultant, rail technologies, British Steel, Bryan Donnelly, Rail Delivery Group, IMechE and Dave Porrill, Technical Director, MCP Consulting will discuss “The Internet of Trains The real IoT” which enables metros, passenger and freight services to use sensors, Machine2Machine learning, the Big Data analytics, cloud computing and other tech to gather and analyse information from a wide variety of sources and data streams.

What systems are available for energy utilities to minimise the risk of failure and maximise equipment lifetimes in the most cost-effective way, increasing reliability? In the session Energy Utilities, Jason Butler, EA Technology Group and Christopher Plummer, U E Systems Europe B.V will discuss approaches that include elements of predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance to prioritise maintenance where it will be most effective.

With a digital factory using digital technology for modelling, communications and to operate the manufacturing process downtime should be minimised because predictive maintenance procedures, based on historical and real-time data for each piece of equipment, automatically address incipient problems before a breakdown. But how do typical Industry 4.0 devices used gather data from processes. What type of data should be gathered? How should Big Data be handled, and where should it be stored - locally, in the Cloud, or in the "Fog"?  Mike Lomax, Bosch Rexroth, Jason Butler, EA Technology Group and Agata Walker, INVMA discuss this issues in The Digital Factory and Maintenance 4.0.

Maintaining machines and equipment at optimal performance levels can be a constant battle. In the session Asset Maintenance Strategies, the panel will look at the plethora of different strategies to address up keep of critical assets, and which is most cost-effective and successful in the long run. Richard Kelly, EMS Cognito and Phil Owen, SPM Instrument will answer top end-user questions such as should you follow a pre-determined schedule? Should you wait until there is a clear deviation? Does preventive maintenance do more harm than good?

The closing session Maintenance with Robots will take a look on how robots are being used to provide a means of inspection of locations which are hazardous for humans to inspect, or difficult for them to access. Robotics is playing an increasing part in maintenance of such installations as nuclear facilities, and wind turbines, while drones can fly above cranes and look down with sophisticated visual and thermal cameras to see what might be going strong. When and where is the investment justified? Attendees can here from Geoff Prudence, Chairman, CIBSE and Jenny Frances: Intelligent Digital – UK Drones Programme and Project Manager Lead, PwC UK who will be tackling this issue.

For more information, and to see the full programme visit www.maintec.co.uk.