Page 44: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2017)

Rich Merhige, President/Owner, AME oices

AME is a Florida based engineering services company specializing in marine (Advanced Mechanical Enterprises) and industrial (Advanced Maintenance Engineering) pre- dictive, preventative and corrective maintenance for rotat- ing and reciprocating machinery. Founded by Rich Mer- hige in 1992, AME has pioneered the use of technologies and equipment to perform diagnostics, maintenance and repair, particularly for private and commercial vessels.

BY ERIC HAUN

Photo: AME

As AME celebrates its 25th anniver- solution beyond just pointing out prob- How would you best decribe AME’s of a wider range of problems. The soft- sary, discuss the decision to start the lems. I was doing the pump work at the services and capabilities? ware has also improved greatly, and of- company. oil terminals and saw a lot of substan- AME provides mechanical engineer- fers the ability to process large amount

I was exposed to reliability engineer- dard work, with pumps failing prema- ing services and products for propul- of vibration data and apply expert diag- ing and conditioning monitoring through turely and work which did not address sion systems, rotating and reciprocating nosis to speed up the process. The future my work for the Navy contractor (Booz the root causes of the failures. I started machinery. We’re solutions-driven and looks even more exciting as processing

Allen) and later through contract work subcontracting pump rebuilds, et cetera focus on ? nding and correcting the root speeds and memory size will allow even

I performed with Sea Land, Exxon and to a local machine shop where I would cause of mechanical issues to improve more complex signal processing, allow-

AT&T cable ships. These companies saw oversee the work. I purchased that shop long term reliability and performance. ing better fault diagnosis and detection. signi? cant bene? ts gained from vibra- when it went up for sale in 2002, and it is AME is committed to using the latest tion analysis, ultrasonic, thermography, still our main location, with our second How has the business most signi? - technologies and methods.

and we could signi? cantly improve ma- location at Lauderdale Marine Center. cantly changed in the last 25 years? chinery reliability and save a tremendous Our service team travels worldwide to When I ? rst established the company I’m sure each job of analyzing and ? x- amount of labor and spare parts expense perform vibration, balancing and align- 25 years ago, vibration analysis was not ing vibration problems is unique, but – not to mention a better performing ma- ment services. widely accepted for machinery condition are there commonalities that you have chinery is better for the environment. monitoring and diagnosis. Early instru- found over the years that might indi-

I moved to South Florida and saw there AME by the numbers: please provide ments were heavy, expensive and had cate a problem is imminent?

wasn’t anyone offering vibration analy- a rundown on your company today. limited capability. Early sensors and ca- Most common issues for propulsion sis services based in Fort Lauderdale, so We have two locations in Fort Lau- bling were not always reliable, causing systems have to do with misalignment.

I started the business soon after buying derdale, one of which is in Lauderdale further hesitancy by operators. Now the Many times we ? nd the resilient mounts a vibration analyzer in 1992. As the vi- Marine Center, the largest yacht repair analyzers are much more powerful with are past their service life and have failed bration analysis work grew, it became facility in the world. AME has 23 em- faster processors, units are lighter and or deteriorated to the point of causing apparent a large percentage of vibration ployees, with mobility worldwide. We the sensors and cabling more accurate alignment problems between the engine issues are alignment related. I expanded perform vibration surveys, alignment or and robust. Portable handheld analyzers and reduction gear. On main propulsion our services to laser alignment and ? eld repair work on approximately 75 to 100 are now able to collect multiple channels engines, we also pick up a lot of mis? re balancing so I could offer a complete vessels per year. of data, enabling more accurate analysis vibration, due to a worn or bad injectors 44 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • NOVEMBER 2017

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