Predictive maintenance

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Why is predictive maintenance necessary? In traditional factories, post-control methods are primarily used to address maintenance issues, that is, problems are resolved once they occur. However, this means that maintenance staff act like firefighters, and by then the damage has already been done – downtime and losses related to unfinished products can be very significant. Therefore, preventive maintenance is usually preferred; equipment is replaced or upgraded at scheduled times. The advantage of this approach is that it reduces the risk of major failures, but it also results in the loss of the equipment’s usability, and it cannot prevent sudden failures. Each piece of mechanical equipment represents an important asset; its long-term, reliable operation ensures smooth production, consistent quality, and prevents downtime caused by failures. Clearly, predictive maintenance holds even greater prospects for development. At the same time, in today’s intelligent era, sensor technology, data collection, big data analysis, and cloud services make condition-based predictive maintenance more convenient and less costly; therefore, this is a technological development direction with broad application prospects. What is the difference between predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance? Predictive maintenance is a maintenance approach based on the condition of equipment. While the machine is in operation, regular or continuous monitoring of its key (or critical) components takes place, along with fault diagnosis, in order to determine the current state of the equipment and predict how its condition will evolve in the future. Based on these predictions regarding the equipment’s condition and potential failure modes, a predictive maintenance plan is formulated in advance, specifying the timing, scope, methods of repair, as well as the necessary technical and material support required. Preventive maintenance, also known as scheduled maintenance, is a type of maintenance based on time. It involves performing shutdown inspections, disassembly, and replacement of components at regular intervals, in accordance with production plans and experience, in order to prevent damage, secondary destruction, and production losses. This method of maintenance is what is currently commonly used, namely planned maintenance or regular maintenance, such as major, medium, and minor repairs. Preventive maintenance involves using various methods to collect data and signals (either intermittently or continuously), analyzing and assessing the trends of equipment degradation, the locations of faults, and their causes, predicting future developments, and recommending preventive measures in order to prevent and control the occurrence of potential failures. By using detection equipment such as current collectors, vibration analyzers, and ultrasonic devices, the operating parameters of these devices such as current, temperature, and vibration are measured. The values obtained are then compared with the parameters corresponding to the standard operating conditions of the devices, thereby determining whether maintenance is necessary and how to schedule such maintenance tasks in a targeted manner. Preventive maintenance relies on the combination of time and experience, while predictive maintenance is based on the condition of equipment, making use of artificial intelligence and big data technologies.