Is it that time of year already? The time when you need to schedule your service person to come out, take up some of your time, interrupt your schedule, and service your perfectly working machine. You may ask yourself if this is really necessary. After all, there have been no problems, no breakdowns and no changes in its behaviour and it's going to cost you time and production. Well, the short answer, as you know, is yes. The yearly preventative maintenance (or even six monthly depending on your machine and production schedule) is like doing a regular oil change on your car. Leave it and the nasties start creeping into the workings and the next thing you know there is an actual problem. The reason - well, machines create friction, or have fluids or gases or have components that wear out. Oil becomes thick and viscous, water grows things or becomes ionised, no gas is absolutely pure and filters, if they're doing their job protecting the workings of your machine, get full. Manufacturers have worked out the intervals at which, under normal, average useage, these items reach a point requiring their replacement. These intervals are outlined in the maintenance schedule provided with the equipment. The schedule is designed to be a guideline. If there has been an increased production schedule or other circumstances causing heavier than normal use, maintenance may need to be done sooner. Keep an eye on those tools provided to let you know this, such as gauges, alarms or visible filters. Letting a machine get to the point of no longer functioning due to overly viscous oil, clogged dust filters or old water can cost much more in repairs of damage caused by contamination than a regularly scheduled service. Additionally, your service person should have a general look over the entire machine. This is the time to prevent problems and so they might alert to you items that will require replacement either immediately to avoid an imminent breakdown, or in the near future. A good example is checking hoses at the preventative maintenance time on older machines as they do have a limited lifespan. An older machine can start springing holes in water or air lines after a while and it's easier to schedule a hose change and to avoid persistent service calls to fix leak upon leak. The preventative maintenance, whilst seeming a necessary evil and a break in schedule can be a key to machine longevity and production schedules met. Contact us today if you think you might need a maintenance or would like to discuss how often your equipment requires service. We'll be happy to assist. |
AuthorDJES is dedicated to customer satisfaction and keeping machines running. This blog is proudly maintained by our staff. Archives
June 2023
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