Healthy machines can be critical to the well-being of a business when it comes to uptime and productivity. When a machine suddenly fails, the downtime can mean loss of business, production, and wasted man-hours. Monitoring the machines and all associated systems can be a good maintenance protocol but knowing how to protect your machines can be critical to how long they run and how well they produce for your company. Here are three areas to look at when trying to keep your machines working for you.
Lubrication
Modern machines produce copious amounts of heat from the ever-moving parts as they grind against one another. Since most of the parts are metal, there are also microscopic metal shavings and slivers that break off as the fragments produce friction. You can help prevent the broken metal and ease the grinding by finding a lubricant supplier VA to provide the correct type of oil, grease, or synthetic lube for your machine.
Vibration
Although machines are calibrated to run with little or no vibration when they come from the factory, many are sensitive to bumping, dinging, or denting. Once the alignment of the bearings or gears is off by even a fraction of an inch, vibrations can result when the machine begins running. If the machine continues to vibrate, the shaking can result in significant damage to the mechanism and limit how it works.
Monitoring
As technology advances, sensors and analyzers have become portable. Maintenance personnel can walk around with the device and analyze the heat, vibration, and fatigue experienced by the machines. The information can be collected on a reporting station or computer and reviewed by maintenance supervisors daily.
As machines become more critical to industry, the failure to protect and monitor them can be disastrous to keeping a business growing. Lubrication and monitoring can help save business downtime and millions of dollars.