Accendo Reliability

Your Reliability Engineering Professional Development Site

  • Home
  • About
    • Contributors
  • Reliability.fm
    • Speaking Of Reliability
    • Rooted in Reliability: The Plant Performance Podcast
    • Quality during Design
    • Critical Talks
    • Dare to Know
    • Maintenance Disrupted
    • Metal Conversations
    • The Leadership Connection
    • Practical Reliability Podcast
    • Reliability Matters
    • Reliability it Matters
    • Maintenance Mavericks Podcast
    • Women in Maintenance
    • Accendo Reliability Webinar Series
    • Asset Reliability @ Work
  • Articles
    • CRE Preparation Notes
    • on Leadership & Career
      • Advanced Engineering Culture
      • Engineering Leadership
      • Managing in the 2000s
      • Product Development and Process Improvement
    • on Maintenance Reliability
      • Aasan Asset Management
      • CMMS and Reliability
      • Conscious Asset
      • EAM & CMMS
      • Everyday RCM
      • History of Maintenance Management
      • Life Cycle Asset Management
      • Maintenance and Reliability
      • Maintenance Management
      • Plant Maintenance
      • Process Plant Reliability Engineering
      • ReliabilityXperience
      • RCM Blitz®
      • Rob’s Reliability Project
      • The Intelligent Transformer Blog
    • on Product Reliability
      • Accelerated Reliability
      • Achieving the Benefits of Reliability
      • Apex Ridge
      • Metals Engineering and Product Reliability
      • Musings on Reliability and Maintenance Topics
      • Product Validation
      • Reliability Engineering Insights
      • Reliability in Emerging Technology
    • on Risk & Safety
      • CERM® Risk Insights
      • Equipment Risk and Reliability in Downhole Applications
      • Operational Risk Process Safety
    • on Systems Thinking
      • Communicating with FINESSE
      • The RCA
    • on Tools & Techniques
      • Big Data & Analytics
      • Experimental Design for NPD
      • Innovative Thinking in Reliability and Durability
      • Inside and Beyond HALT
      • Inside FMEA
      • Integral Concepts
      • Learning from Failures
      • Progress in Field Reliability?
      • Reliability Engineering Using Python
      • Reliability Reflections
      • Testing 1 2 3
      • The Manufacturing Academy
  • eBooks
    • Reliability Engineering Management DRAFT
  • Resources
    • Accendo Authors
    • FMEA Resources
    • Feed Forward Publications
    • Openings
    • Books
    • Webinars
    • Journals
    • Higher Education
    • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • 14 Ways to Acquire Reliability Engineering Knowledge
    • Reliability Analysis Methods online course
    • Measurement System Assessment
    • SPC-Process Capability Course
    • Design of Experiments
    • Foundations of RCM online course
    • Quality during Design Journey
    • Reliability Engineering Statistics
    • An Introduction to Reliability Engineering
    • An Introduction to Quality Engineering
    • Process Capability Analysis course
    • Root Cause Analysis and the 8D Corrective Action Process course
    • Return on Investment online course
    • CRE Preparation Online Course
    • Quondam Courses
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Live Events
  • Calendar
    • Call for Papers Listing
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Webinar Calendar
  • Login
    • Member Home

by Mike Sondalini Leave a Comment

Preventative Maintenance Stops Breakdowns

Preventative Maintenance Stops Breakdowns

Preventative maintenance stops breakdowns. Preventative Maintenance requires people to regularly walk around looking, feeling, listening, smelling (sometimes even tasting) and thinking about their equipment’s operating condition. The three foundations of classical Preventative Maintenance are regular lubrication checks, drive train monitoring and equipment mounting inspections.

Keywords: work order, inspection, watchkeeping, CMMS, computerised maintenance management system.

Preventative maintenance (PM) work orders are easily generated by a CMMS and you should take advantage of this. PM’s require people to walk around looking, feeling, listening, smelling (sometimes even tasting) and thinking.

The three foundations of classical PM are regular lubrication checks, drive train monitoring and equipment mounting inspections. By establishing PM’s in just these areas there will be a noticeable drop in breakdowns within two months.

Lubrication PM’s should be raised to cover greasing and oil level checks. List the machine(s) to be greased and oiled and the gearbox oil levels to be checked. Tick check boxes as each machine is done. Use check boxes to tick if shaft seals are leaking. Don’t let seal leaks drain a gearbox of oil.

Make it clear where the grease nipples are so none are missed. Train the person doing the lube in basic lubrication theory. Tell them how vitally important it is to do the job well and to be continually on the lookout for lubrication and roller bearing problems.

Drive train monitoring involves inspecting vee-belts, pulleys, drive chains, sprockets and couplings for wear and over stress. Vee-belts are to have no cracks and a full profile without signs of wear. Pulley alignment is checked with a straight edge between pulleys. Pulleys should have no signs of slippage. Sprockets and chain links are checked for wear and alignment. Visually check the condition of coupling members transferring torque for signs of distortion and perishing. Where the same machine regularly shows up as defective investigate the cause and do an improvement project.

Equipment mounting inspections involve checking for loose mounting bolts and broken foundations, observing signs of

flexing base plates during operation, making sure pipe supports are taking the stress off connection points and feeling for unusual vibrations in the body of the machine.

The frequency of a PM is dependent on the industry, the site and the equipment. Lube PM’s are done more frequently than drive train PM’s which in turn are done more frequently than looseness check PM’s. However the periods can be adjusted with experience.

*CMMS –Computerised Maintenance Management System

Mike Sondalini – Maintenance Engineer


We (Accendo Reliability) published this article with the kind permission of Feed Forward Publishing, a subsidiary of BIN95.com

Web: trade-school.education
E-mail: info@trade-school.education

Filed Under: Articles, on Maintenance Reliability, Plant Maintenance Tagged With: preventative

« Temperature & Humidity Accelerated Life Testing
Space Tourism »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Article by
Mike Sondalini
in the
Plant Maintenance series articles provided courtesy of Feed Forward Publications and Lifetime Reliability Solutions.

Join Accendo

Receive information and updates about articles and many other resources offered by Accendo Reliability by becoming a member.

It’s free and only takes a minute.

Join Today

Recent Articles

  • Terrorism Risk Insurance Act Exclusions: Gray Coverage Areas
  • Why Total Productive Maintenance Is The Answer To Reliability-Centered Culture
  • 17 Powerful Insights on Effective Communication Using FINESSE
  • Surprising Insights from Simple Run Charts
  • Risk is Round

© 2023 FMS Reliability · Privacy Policy · Terms of Service · Cookies Policy

This site uses cookies to give you a better experience, analyze site traffic, and gain insight to products or offers that may interest you. By continuing, you consent to the use of cookies. Learn how we use cookies, how they work, and how to set your browser preferences by reading our Cookies Policy.