Performing regularly scheduled preventive maintenance is essential for maximizing the lifespan and efficiency of processing equipment. General Kinematics equipment is integral to processes and challenging to replace quickly – especially if parts are not kept on hand or equipment manufacturers operate with long lead times. Additionally, regular preventive maintenance can minimize the amount of unscheduled downtime necessary for reactive maintenance; i.e. any necessary maintenance that’s performed after a problem occurs or a piece of equipment breaks.
What is Preventive Maintenance?
In contrast to reactive maintenance, which aims to resolve issues after they occur, preventive maintenance is performed before a component failure occurs to ensure that pieces of equipment are functioning properly and are in good condition. Equipment breakdowns can create both safety hazards and process slowdowns – reducing product output and costing manufacturers time and money. Implementing preventive maintenance procedures ensure that equipment value is maintained and issues can be addressed before they progress too far.
Preventive Maintenance Checklist
The following is a list of several aspects related to preventive maintenance and their importance.
Maintenance Scheduling
In general, equipment comes with recommended maintenance tasks and the frequencies at which those tasks should be completed. Therefore, when a new piece of equipment is implemented in a process, it is useful to incorporate the recommended maintenance tasks into your overall maintenance schedule. A well-optimized maintenance schedule ensures that all pieces of equipment are examined at an appropriate frequency while minimizing the amount of downtime needed for maintenance. If you or your maintenance team have questions about what your regular maintenance schedule should encompass, General Kinematics dedicated Field Service team will help you to plan your routine.
Process Monitoring
With the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, there has been an increasing focus on process optimization and performance efficiency via process monitoring and data acquisition. Equipment monitoring devices help ensure that users are aware of the status of their equipment, and alert users at the first sign of device failure or insufficient performance.
Additionally, many process monitoring devices, such as General Kinematics’ VERTEX™ can log data regularly. This data can be reviewed and analyzed to better understand process performance, plan maintenance, and pinpoint indicators of inefficient operations.
Inspect and Adjust Components Regularly
Over the lifespan of a piece of equipment, normal wear and tear are inevitable. However, improper use can cause equipment to wear much more quickly than expected. Therefore, it’s important to regularly inspect, lubricate, and align components with moving parts (following what is recommended in the scheduled maintenance plan).
Ideally, all equipment operators should be trained in proper equipment use and also in visual equipment inspection. When operators are aware of common points of failure and signs of deficiency, they are better able to detect issues early on. It is also recommended to have equipment checked by a Field Service professional on a yearly basis to assure that issues have not been overlooked.
General Kinematics and Preventive Maintenance
At General Kinematics, we are focused on creating reliable equipment to help our customers reduce process downtime and maximize process uptime. Our BARRIER™ service was designed with this focus in mind. BARRIER™ has three segments APEX™, VERTEX™, and NOMADX™ that monitor the optimal functionality of your vibration equipment and offer support and guidance to your maintenance program.
As part of the BARRIER™ program, our equipment monitoring device VERTEX™ can be used with any vibrational equipment, even non-GK models, to ensure proper functionality and detect potential inefficiencies with your equipment.
Contact us today to learn more about preventive maintenance or any of our preventive maintenance systems and tools.
