Lots of industrial units invest in material handling equipment for lifting heavy loads. However, then, they sometimes miss focusing on the condition of their equipment. Due to the regular use, the material handling systems can start showing signs of deterioration. But, you can prevent these issues and extend the life of your equipment by maintaining those devices. Invest a little amount for maintenance, and you can make your equipment long-lasting. The right steps also help you to save your equipment from premature damages. Moreover, your equipment maintenance schedule will enable you to increase the longevity of your systems.
Material handling devices have become the most important tools for the manufacturing industry. For moving, lifting, sorting, and other purposes, you may have bought them. Reliable manufacturers use high-quality components to design the overall systems. Still, without maintenance, the best equipment may also start having deterioration. Faulty parts of your material handling equipment can affect the productivity level of your business.
A few tips for periodic maintenance of your equipment
- First, create a list of physical assets and equipment that you have in your inventory. While preparing this list, you must focus on different factors, including hours of operation, working conditions, and the size of equipment.
- Engage professionals and consult with them about the standard working conditions of your devices. This step is important for better maintenance of your equipment.
- You need to analyze your past maintenance programs and then create a schedule for periodic monitoring of the systems. To take preventive measures, it is better to make a monthly or weekly schedule. You can hire a trained and certified technician to deal with your material handling equipment.
- You may invest in some spare parts of the equipment. Sudden failure to mechanical components may affect your business operations. Thus, you can buy these spare parts and follow manufacturers' instructions to use them.
We have found some ways of maintaining the original condition of your industrial equipment.
Make sure that your employees are trained.
Employees, having no knowledge about material handling equipment, can affect the longevity of the system. In most cases, they need the training to operate electric systems.
Your employees must know about modern technologies and master the skill of operating the equipment. When you have hired new employees, you have to take steps to help them in learning the way of dealing with load lifting systems and other devices.
Communication with operators is important.
As one of the supervisors, you have to communicate with the regular equipment operators. These operators will tell you about the potential damaging signs, noticed in the equipment. You have to take proactive steps to address issues without any delay.
Preventive maintenance program for your equipment
A comprehensive program for preventive maintenance is essential to downtime and equipment failures. Timely replacement of wearing part will benefit you in the future. To prevent the disruption of your business activities, you have to maintain your equipment. Moreover,
Preventive maintenance enables you to
- Keep away from high emergency repair costs
- Sustain the optimal efficiency level of your material handling equipment
- Have long-lasting serviceable life
There is another reason for investing in regular equipment maintenance services. As these systems work properly, you can keep up the production level in your business. Thus, you can serve your customers in a better way.
Although you need to incur an upfront cost, preventive maintenance will cost you less in the long run. Well-maintained devices ensure higher efficiency of managing materials and heavy loads.
Schedule a predictive maintenance program
Although you have paid attention to preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance is another important option. You need to have a track of regular servicing of your equipment.
When you have old material handling devices, you may replace them. You can implement some automated systems for monitoring purposes, or rely on only the manual process to accomplish it. Some automated systems present you with real-time updates about the condition and performance of your industrial equipment.
Material handling equipment- Its future in India
We anticipate that the market share of material handling equipment will grow in the future years. This industry is going to see a positive effect on the economic landscape due to the increasing level of manufacturing activities.
You know that most of the industrial facilities are now trying their best to make the working environment safer and better. The latest technologies will increase the market size of material handling equipment. Moreover, the development of different international and domestic firms is another reason for the rising need for these tools.
You can communicate with our team to make a deal. You may also speak to our technicians to get tips on how to make your equipment long-lasting.
5 Best Ways To Lengthen The Life Cycle Of Overhead Cranes
Overhead cranes are a lifesaver in warehouses and factories, especially if you are producing and moving tons. Crane servicing requires the most attention and takes up almost half of the repair costs. Issues might frequently arise due to malpractices, age, and improper use. Even environmental factors weigh in and cause a number of damages to it. As a result, the life cycle of your overhead cranes diminishes and ends up way less than what was promised. The best way to extend it would be to avoid frequent repairs and damages. That would not only extend its life cycle but decrease downtime, thereby enhancing production.
How to extend your overhead crane’s life cycle?
A lot of factors can work in damaging your overhead crane and making it subject to repairs. But our goal is to avoid those damages, and it can be achieved mostly through following proper practices. Establishing guidelines for proper practices will help us avoid regular repairs and hence extend its life span. Given below are the best ways one can ensure that their overhead cranes go a long way.
- Performing pre-use checks: Pre-use checks are so significant before beginning a shift on your overhead crane. It is so tempting to skip over these checks and save a few minutes, but that doesn't help the crane's health. The pre-use checks can bring so many issues to our notice that we would have otherwise ignored. These issues are better off dealt with at the beginning than after we start the shift. It allows us to notice any malfunction that might be impending and might cause a total breakdown during operation. That way, we can avoid downtime with a heavy load stuck above us. Moreover, any issue observed during pre-use check can be inexpensive and quick to resolve. Skip over those, and the same issue can become lengthy and costly to manoeuvre.
- Adequate operator training: The best thing you can provide for your overhead cranes is a team of able crane operators. It will do you and your cranes a world of good if you can have their operators complete a Crane Operator Training Course. Proper training will equip the operators with adequate knowledge and awareness of running the equipment. It would educate them properly and teach them how to correct malpractices while they are operating a crane. This would hence reduce the number of incidents during operation and enable them to avoid any action that can speed up wear and damage of the crane parts.
- Maintain a proper maintenance plan: Lack of regular maintenance activity can hinder your overhead cranes considerably. Regular maintenance plays a vital part in ensuring that your cranes are in proper condition and fit for production. Daily maintenance activities such as changing contaminated and dirty oil might seem trivial yet impact the lifespan of your overhead crane significantly. Periodic adjustments of brakes and their cleaning will prevent load drifting and bring down breakdown rates. It would also stop the motors running through the brakes that cause rapid wear and tear. A regular maintenance schedule, if followed properly, ensures that every component is inspected for damage. It also provides an opportunity for repairing any inspected problem before it becomes too large to manoeuvre.
- Avoid dragging your loads and side loading: Dragging heavy loads using an overhead crane is like giving it a slow death. It causes similar problems as sideloading does. It will wear out the equipment prematurely and also brings in the possibility of dislodging its hoist and trolley off its bridge and right to the floor. Sideloading causes the load chain or wire rope to rub against the guide. This accelerates further wear and damage, causing kinks and broken parts of the wire. In many cases, it can lead to an unexpected motion causing a swinging load.
- Avoid jogging functions at high speed: A majority of crane operators are guilty of mashing down the function button and jogging the crane with short bursts of high speed frequently. AC motors inside the crane receive a large current burst while initial startup. Jogging of the crane causes such large current crusts in a very small period, thereby generating excessive heat within the motor. This, when done over long periods, causes thermal damage to the crane parts. The repairs of such damage can be pretty lengthy and expensive. In many cases, it causes the motor's overload protection to trip and stops the crane entirely, causing extensive downtime. The best way to get rid of such damages is by avoiding such function jogging at high speeds.
Conclusion
Cranes can be considered the life of warehouses and factories. But it is upon us to extend the crane's life cycle. It can appear to be an arduous task but is quite simple if we follow simple steps. We have provided the above 5 proven ways to get the most out of our overhead cranes. If we can apply these strategies to the tee, then our cranes will last longer and provide us with their reliable service for extended periods.
