#STLE2013 Education Courses - Register before Early Bird to save!

The Early Bird deadline (April 1) to register for the 2013 STLE Annual Meeting & Exhibition is coming up fast. Be sure to get registered for the meeting, and while you're doing that, be sure to sign up for an education course. It never hurts to sign up for a refresher on a given topic, maintain your certification, get started in a new area that you've been assigned at work, or simply learn more. Courses will be offered on Sunday, May 5, and Wednesday, May 8, 2013. They include:

Sunday, May 5

• An Introduction to Corrosion (co-hosted with ASM International)* NEW!
• BioFuels and Lubes
• Basic Lubrication 101: Lubrication Fundamentals
• Condition Monitoring 301: CM in the 21st Century
• Metalworking 105: Metal Forming Fluids
• Grease and its Lubrication in Rolling Element Bearings (co-hosted with ABMA)* NEW!
• Synthetic Lubricants 203: Non-Petroleum Fluids & Their Uses

Wednesday, May 8

• Advanced Lubrication 301
• Automotive Lubrication 201: Gasoline - NEW!
• Basic Lubrication 102: Basic Applications
• Hydraulics 101: Basic Fluids & Applications
• Metalworking 250: Understanding & Controlling Metal Removal Fluid Failure

[Click here] for more details, or click on the course title for more information on each.

Best of 2012: Education

Below you'll find the top resources from 2012 as determined by the attendance and interest for in-person education, online courses, webinars, books and podcasts. If you feel that one of your favorites was left off the list, feel free to mention it in the comments. There was a lot of competition for the top spots as we had a great schedule this year, and that wouldn't have been possible without all our volunteers and instructors. Thank you all for making this a great year! For a full list of our offerings and to explore on your own, visit the STLE Store or see our Events Calendar for upcoming events.

Popular Courses at the 2012 Annual Meeting
-Advanced Lubrication 301: This course will be offered again in 2013
-Basic Lubrication 103 (Overview): Basic 101 & 102 were condensed to create this course, and it was still well-attended. The classic Basic 101 & Basic 102 courses will be offered in 2013
-Automotive Lubrication 201 - Diesel: the 2013 course will focus on Gasoline engines
-Synthetics 203: Non-Petroleum Fluids & Their Uses - this course will be offered again in 2013, with Synthetics 204 being offered again in 2014.
-MWF 115: Basic Metal Removal Fluids was also well-attended this past year. And if you liked that course, you may be interested in MWF 250: Understanding & Controlling Metal Removal Fluid Failure.

[Click here] for a full list of the courses to be offered at the 2013 Annual Meeting, including course instructors, module descriptions and agendas. Registration is now open, and the early bird deadline will save you some money on your registration, so be sure to include it in your 2013 budget!

Highest Attended Webinars of 2012
The Food Grade and Condition Monitoring Data Interpretation Series were some of the highest attended, attracting 100+ attendees each! Individual events also did quite well.

-Food Grade Lubrication Series: the series covered all aspects of lubrication and related regulations. If you're interested in purchasing, you can get the series at a 10-15% discount. The series included: Grease and its Use in Food Processing, Food Grade Lubricants, and Food Grade Lubricants & Their Regulations.
-Condition Monitoring Series: This series covered a lot of ground on interpreting data and reading reports. If you're interested in purchasing, you can get the series at a 10% discount, or you can purchase each event on its own as it piques your interest. The series included: Alarm Limits, Spectrographic Data Interpretation Part I: Contaminants & Wear, Spectrographic Data Interpretation Part II: Additive Metals, Physical Properties Data Interpretation, Additional Testing (FTIR, AN, BN, and Particle Counts) and Advanced Report Reading.
-VOC Emissions from Metalworking Fluids
-Hydraulic Fluid Properties and Hydraulic Systems - A Vital Link
-Tribological Perspective on Engine Friction Reduction
-Heavy Duty Diesel Engine Oils: Emission Strategies and Their Effects on Engine Oils
-Basics of Additives

If you're interested in other topics, feel free to check out our other post which features all webinars to-date, grouped by topic. You can also start planning your attendance with our 2013 schedule, with events listed through April. If you don't see something you like, make a suggestion and we'll work to include it later in the year.

Top Online Education Course of 2012
-Fundamentals of Lubrication Certificate Course: this interactive, four-module online course covers friction, lubrication and wear with handy Check Your Knowledge and quiz questions along the way to aid with material retention and understanding. At the end of each module, you'll find a quiz to reinforce the material, and when you get to the end of the course, you can take an assessment to demonstrate the knowledge you just learned, and earn a certificate which you can print and hang in your office or provide to management. This course (and all of our online courses/webinars) also applies towards your recertification efforts, giving you 2.5 hours towards the 8 required hours towards requirement #12. See your designation's recertification requirements for details.

If you liked the Fundamentals, you may also like our other online courses, which are shorter and provide the information you need, when you need it.
-Metalworking Fluids Short Course: includes modules on types and functions of metalworking fluids and the guidelines for recommending specific metal removal fluids for  an applications.
-Lubricant Composition Short Course: includes modules on base oils, additives and greases.
-Fluid Management & Recycling Short Course: includes modules on justifying the implementation of a program/cost savings and best practices for implementing a program at your site.
-Basic Lubrication Short Course: taking less time and with fewer quizzes than the Fundamentals course, this covers the same material in half the time for those who need to get the info and go.

Popular Books in 2012
-Basic Handbook of Lubrication, 3rd Edition: Perfect or Spiral Bound
-Machinery Oil Analysis

Most Accessed Podcasts in 2012
-Biobased Fuels & Biobased Lubricants with Dr. Joseph M. Perez, Penn State
-Metalworking Fluid Microbicides with Dr. Fred Passman, BCA, Inc.
-Metalworking Fluids and Chemical Additives with Dr. Neil Canter, Chemical Solutions
-Nanotribology & MEMS: There's Still Plenty of Room at the Bottom, with Dr. Michael Dugger
-What's it like to be an STLE member? Get details directly from new members who joined during the Member Get A Member Campaign - see why they joined and the benefits they've enjoyed since they joined.

Be sure to check out our Best of 2011 Education for more info on what was popular last year, and those that maintained their "cool-kid" status from year to year.
What was your favorite of the year? Why was it your favorite?

AM Education Course Feature: Condition Monitoring 301

STLE asked the course instructors and chair to provide some detail on the course, and you can read on to get a preview of the course itself. You can register for the meeting and the course, or get some more information on our Annual Meeting page.

First, can you give us an overview of the field and how this course got started?
“Condition Monitoring” is a relatively new term, perhaps 20-25 years old. I founded this course on the observation that CM was going to be a very important concept as equipment and lubricants continued to get more sophisticated. It was also the first practically-oriented STLE course that dealt with in-service lubricants.


How does this course differ from last year or previous courses offered on CM?
This course is significantly more advanced and is targeted to persons who already have experience in oil analysis and CM. Basics are mentioned in passing but the objective is to provide a more technical program.

Are there are any prerequisites for attending this course?

Attendees should have a good basic understanding of oil analysis and the CM concept, generally: the notion of preventive action triggered by CM data, evaluated by knowledgeable people.

What can one expect to learn and be able to bring back to their workplace?

Whether data evaluation and rendering opinions is the goal of the attendee, an appreciation of what an oil analysis or other CM report provides should be gained. If the attendee is a manager of those involved in data evaluation and opinion rendering, then he/she will have a good appreciation of the process so as to facilitate the team in accomplishing CM goals. The theme of this course is "21st Century Condition Monitoring," and this is the crux of what our team is presenting: cutting edge approaches to this valuable, necessary concept.

The short answer is that CM, properly done by competent people in a competent system, saves or earns money by early detection of potential problems and/or increasing component availability, respectively.

Meet the instructors, and see what they're teaching:

Evan Zabawski: Advanced Data Interpretation
A successful condition monitoring program requires the right data coupled with the right interpretation. Obtaining the right data can be relatively simple, but getting a decent interpretation often relies on setting appropriate alarm limits or properly identifying abnormal trends. Leveraging historical data from the same asset and other similar assets is ideal, but the execution often produces sub-par results. This presentation will critique a variety of techniques used for both setting alarm limits and trending data, and then offer a model which uses an amalgamation of the best concepts. Examples will be used to illustrate key concepts. This presentation is aimed at any individual involved in the interpretation of data or decision-making resulting from condition monitoring data (e.g. Reliability Engineers, Maintenance Planners, etc.)

Chad Chichester: Condition Monitoring (CM) Techniques Complementary to Oil Analysis

Many companies elect to employ a multitude of condition monitoring techniques. The nature of failure analysis and prediction is becoming more complex and each technique offers insight to root causation of failures, and impending failures intended to be mitigated. Isolating techniques to confines of their own data, interpretation, and topical experts may prevent reliability and maintenance practitioners from realizing the full potential of using multiple techniques. Integration of data and information from multiple techniques can improve asset owners’ ability to succinctly identify root cause and/or impending failures. This module will focus on CM techniques like, vibration analysis, infrared thermography, and acoustic emissions and how such methods can be aggregated and synergistically complementary to oil analysis.

Allison Toms: Impact of Machinery Configuration and Operations on Monitoring Techniques and Data

Over the past decade, changes in machinery configuration and operational demands have had a profound impact on oil analysis condition monitoring. Machinery and lubricant OEMs and government research have invested in improvements in both the design and materials used in manufacturing and production as well as in lubricant formulation. Many of these improvements have not been adequately reflected in current testing practices. Testing equipment and methodologies have also improved and new monitoring tools have been introduced to address new problems. This presentation will touch on some of the changes to oil analysis over the past decade such as lubricants and additives; component design, configuration and alloy compositions; improved and new testing equipment, technology, techniques; operational and environmental factors; and customer desires. The presentation will include on-line sensors and at-line applications to meet some of these changes as well as the means to achieve improved machinery condition indicators and estimates on remaining useful life through integration of monitoring techniques. Examples and case histories will be presented.

Jack Poley (also Course Chair): Condition Monitoring International and Kittiwake Developments - Changing Paradigms in CM: Online Oil Analysis, Extended Particle Analysis, Software and More

Oil Analysis has changed rather radically in the last decade. The advent of dependable, effective online sensors for metallic wear debris is probably the most obvious such change, leading to a ‘3-tiered’ system of oil analysis: Online, Onsite, Offsite, each having its own advantages. Practitioners can employ one or all avenues. Particulate analysis, especially those near the visible range, is increasingly more advanced. Computerization has provided us with the ability to set limits and plot trends, but nowadays that’s not news. The use of Intelligent Agents in resolving increasingly complex data sets that can include streaming data from online metallic debris or vibration sensors makes it possible, given strong domain expertise, to auto-generate very sophisticated and accurate opinions AND get them to the right stakeholder for timely intervention as may be needed via selective report recipients,. The notion of humans poring over data one sample after the next is on its way out. Information needs to be specific, relevant , consistent and tidy, delivered quickly and effectively to the right parties.