Maintenance Technology September 2017 - 17

ADVERTORIAL

Precision Maintenance:

Why do it?

By Alan Luedeking, CMRP, CRL -
LUDECA, Inc.

Unexpected breakdowns in production machinery
may lead to costly waste from scrappage and high
restart costs for the production line.

f greater reliability and uptime are of any
concern to you, then precision maintenance is
a key component in achieving it. This means
having clear and simple, yet meaningful, procedures in place for the different tasks involved. Two
such tasks are precision alignment and balancing.
LUDECA's 5-Step Procedures will help guide your
facility and maintenance staff to achieving precision
maintenance.
Why is precision maintenance so important? The
reasons are clear:

1. Safety
The alignment and balancing procedures lay out the
basic steps required to align and balance machines
safely, reducing risk of injury and increasing
likelihood of a quality outcome. Checklists simplify
the workflow and serve to remind employees of
the processes required to consistently and safely
perform the precision maintenance task.

2. Reliability
Well-aligned and balanced machines run more
reliably, with a greatly reduced probability of failure.
This allows for better maintenance planning,
greatly reduced repair and maintenance expenses,
increased uptime and more profits.

3. Efficiency
A good alignment procedure ensure that machines
are aligned to the proper tolerances for the running
condition of the machines, taking into account such
things as thermal growth and anticipated positional
changes. This ensures that the greatest efficiency is
achieved in your running machinery, prolonging their
health and reducing power consumption. Studies
have shown that well-aligned machines result in a
3% to 10% reduction in power consumption. Noise
and heat generation is reduced, producing a safer
work environment.

5. Training & Procedural Consistency
Once implemented, a procedure ensures all
employees involved in the activity face clear and
consistent expectations and processes, leading
to a better understanding between all staff in the
facility. Training expense can be reduced since
often only refresher training is required to update
understanding of the technology utilized as updates
are rolled out. Records should be kept that document
employee training.

Other Things to Consider:

■ The next step in precision maintenance and reliability is the Implementation of formal specifications
that detail every step in a task from safety to activity
process to documentation, to ensure that anyone
involved can follow the procedures and guidelines
without confusion, and reach the desired outcome
for all machinery types in the plant. Such specifications typically take from two to three months to
develop and a further two to three months to roll out
and fully implement. LUDECA has written a number
of these specifications for customers worldwide. Let
us help you as well.
For more information, contact me at 305-591-8935
or email Alan.Luedeking@ludeca.com

LUDECA, INC.
Alignment | Vibration | Balancing | Ultrasound

4. Production Quality
Good alignment and balancing result in better
product quality since vibration is minimized, resulting
in a more uniform and higher product quality.
SEPTEMBER 2017

1425 N.W. 88th Avenue Doral, FL 33172
Tel: 305-591-8935 Fax: 305-591-1537
Visit us at www.ludeca.com
ADVERTORIAL | 17

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Maintenance Technology September 2017