Why you need to set up a maintenance regime for your machinery
If you work in the manufacturing industry, you will be well aware of the importance of maintaining your machinery. Your motors, generators and other electrical rotating machinery are at the heart of your business, and you know that you need to take proper care of them to ensure they remain safe to use and are capable of performing at the high level you need to keep producing products, keep your customers happy and keep your business performing at the level you expect. To maintain your electrical rotating machinery, you need access to a qualified electrician who can respond to any emergencies and look after routine maintenance issues. Having an established maintenance routine is the most effective way to ensure that your electrical rotating machine is kept in the best of condition.
Setting up your maintenance routine
Every machine maintenance regimen will be different. You will need to discuss with your maintenance team what your procedures should be, but things that you will want to take into account include:
- The amount of use a machine gets
- The age of the machinery
- The environment in which the machinery is used
- The experience possessed by the machine operators
- The danger posed by machine failure
What routine maintenance needs to be carried out?
A good electrician will be aware of which areas of the machine will require most attention, but you should still take the time to study the manufacturer's instructions. The instructions will indicate which maintenance procedures they recommend and help you ensure that nothing is missed that is required to keep the equipment safe. Particular attention should always be paid to safety-critical parts of the equipment, and these will need more frequent attention than other elements of the machine.
The difference between routine maintenance and breakdown maintenance
Following a good routine maintenance program should mean less downtime when your electrical rotating machinery fails in service, but it's inevitable that failures will still occur. When your equipment goes down, then you will need to call in a maintenance contractor at the earliest opportunity. The engineer will come in and identify the fault. He or she will do everything that needs to be done to get the machine working again. That is not routine maintenance! The breakdown engineer will concentrate on the area with the fault and may not even look at other parts of the machine if they are not relevant to the repair. By contrast, a routine maintenance check will look at every aspect of the machine, check it is safe to use and identify where future faults could occur.
Share