No business wants downtime, whether it is a mining project or a manufacturing unit. Unplanned downtime incurs significant financial expenses and may lead your company to lose its competitive edge.
Heavy machinery is the lifeblood of the majority of manufacturing plants. The most effective strategy to reduce unplanned downtime is to perform proactive maintenance on your heavy gear. Preventive maintenance also improves performance, saves fuel and energy, and promotes a safe work environment.
In this blog, you’ll find solutions for how to maintain your heavy machinery in good working order and extend its lifespan.
1. Replace Lubricants Regularly
Lubricants are essential for the proper working of all sorts of heavy machinery. These liquids reduce friction around moving parts, reducing wear and tear. Lubricants also help to keep heavy machines clean by minimizing soot buildup.
Use the appropriate amount of lubrication. When you apply too little lubrication, you risk increased friction and wear and tear. Excessive lubrication, on the other hand, will cause grease buildup and performance problems.
2. Clean the Machines Properly
Proper cleaning is just as important as keeping the lubricant levels in check. Unfortunately, most businesses tend to overlook this stage. Filters, seals, cooling fans, and vents can become clogged with soot, grit, rust, and dust, reducing overall performance over time.
Always check each component of your machinery thoroughly. If you own a manufacturing firm in Lake City, UT, and your machine gets rusty, then you don’t need to scrub it. You need to consider Surface Prep Sandblasting salt lake city, ut to make your machine rust effortlessly.
3. Avoid Exceeding Performance Targets
All heavy equipment has a set of specified performance limitations, such as maximum load capacity, operating pressure and temperature range, and other restrictions. Check the operator’s manual thoroughly to understand your equipment’s performance limitations.
To overcome these issues, make use of FFKM O-rings for temperature, chemical, gas, and liquid permeation resistance, and so on. Exceeding performance specifications and limitations will result in greater wear and tear as well as decreased longevity.
4. Inspect the Machinery for Signs of Wear and Tear.
Poor operating habits, accidents, environmental variables, and aging are all examples of factors that can cause wear and tear over time. Even if you take every precaution, age will inevitably affect numerous vital components of the machine.
Belts may warp with time, seals may dry up, or fracture, and bolts may bend or stretch out of their original shape. That’s why you must inspect all parts of the machinery for wear and tear.
5. Document Detail Preventive Maintenance and Servicing
Recordkeeping is an essential component of preventive maintenance. You’ll need to inspect everything from lubricants to electrical systems on the heavy machines.
It’s a difficult task that necessitates a detailed record of each maintenance, including the date, time, technical specifics of the repair, parts replaced, and the next service scheduled. It can, however, assist you in developing customized maintenance programs, making warranty claims for spare parts easier to handle, and maintaining responsibility.
