What is equipment maintenance

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Equipment maintenance refers to the technical activities carried out by repairing or replacing worn parts, adjusting precision, eliminating faults, and restoring the equipment’s original functions. Its main purpose is to restore the equipment’s precision and performance, improve efficiency, extend its service life, and maintain production capacity. Contents of equipment maintenance The basic aspects of equipment maintenance include: equipment upkeep, equipment inspection, and equipment repair. 　　I. Equipment Maintenance 　　The tasks of equipment maintenance include keeping the equipment clean, tidy, properly lubricated, and operating safely; this involves tightening any loose fasteners in a timely manner and adjusting the gaps in moving parts. In short, it is the ten-point maintenance method of “cleaning, lubricating, tightening, adjusting, and anti-corrosion.” Practice has shown that the lifespan of equipment depends to a large extent on the quality of its maintenance. Maintenance is divided into daily maintenance, level 1 maintenance, level 2 maintenance, level 3 maintenance, etc., depending on the volume of work and the degree of difficulty. 　　Routine maintenance, also known as regular maintenance. Its main contents are: cleaning, lubricating, and tightening loose parts, as well as checking the integrity of parts and components. There are few such maintenance items and locations, with most of them being on the outside of the equipment. 　　Level 1 maintenance mainly involves general tightening, cleaning, lubrication, and securing, as well as partial adjustments. Daily maintenance and level 1 maintenance are generally carried out by the operators. 　　Level 2 maintenance. The main tasks include internal cleaning, lubrication, partial disassembly inspection, and adjustment. 　　Level 3 maintenance. It mainly involves disassembling and inspecting the main components of the equipment, as well as making adjustments; when necessary, parts that have reached the specified wear limits are replaced. In addition, it is also necessary to measure, assess, and record the wear condition of the main components. Secondary and tertiary maintenance are generally carried out by specialized maintenance workers, with the assistance of operational staff. 　　Among all types of maintenance, routine maintenance is the foundation. The categories and contents of maintenance should be specified based on the characteristics of different equipment. It is necessary to take into account factors such as the equipment’s production process, degree of structural complexity, and scale, as well as the maintenance habits that have developed over time within various industrial enterprises. 　　II. Equipment Inspection Equipment inspection refers to the measurement and verification of the equipment’s operating conditions, working accuracy, as well as the degree of wear or corrosion. By examining the technical condition and wear of machinery and equipment in detail, potential problems can be identified and eliminated promptly. Purposeful preparations can be made before repairs are carried out, thereby improving the quality of repairs and reducing the time required for them. 　　Inspections are divided into daily inspections and regular inspections based on time intervals. Daily inspections are carried out by the equipment operators, in conjunction with routine maintenance, with the aim of detecting abnormal technical conditions in a timely manner and carrying out necessary maintenance work. Regular inspections are carried out on a scheduled basis, with the participation of the operator, by specialized maintenance staff. The purpose is to gain a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the actual degree of wear on the parts through inspection, so as to determine whether repair is necessary. 　　Inspections can be divided into functional inspections and precision inspections based on technical functions. Functional testing refers to the inspection and measurement of various functions of a device, such as whether there is oil, water, or air leakage, the level of dust resistance, and the performance of components under high temperatures, high speeds, and high pressures. Precision inspection refers to the examination and measurement of a machine’s actual machining precision, in order to determine the quality of that precision and provide a basis for equipment acceptance, repair, and replacement. 　　III. Equipment Repair Equipment repair refers to the restoration of equipment that has been damaged or whose accuracy has declined due to normal wear and tear or abnormal factors. By repairing and replacing worn, aged, or corroded components, the performance of the equipment can be restored. The repair and maintenance of equipment are different aspects of equipment upkeep; due to differences in their tasks and functions, they cannot replace each other. It is necessary to carry out both effectively so that they can complement each other. 　　1. Types of equipment repairs. Based on the scale of the repairs, the interval between repairs, and the cost of repairs, equipment maintenance can be divided into three categories: minor repairs, medium repairs, and major repairs. 　　(1) Minor repairs. Minor repairs usually only involve fixing or replacing those parts that wear out more quickly and whose service life is equal to or less than the repair interval, as well as adjusting certain components of the equipment to ensure it can operate properly until the scheduled repair time. The characteristics of minor repairs are: a high number of repairs, small workload, short duration for each repair, and the repair costs are included in the production expenses. Minor repairs are generally carried out at the production site by dedicated maintenance workers in the workshop. 　　(2) Repair in middle. Mid-term maintenance involves partially disassembling the equipment, repairing or replacing some of the main components and reference parts, or repairing those parts whose service life is equal to or less than the maintenance interval ； At the same time, the entire mechanical system must be inspected, all components tightened, any increased gaps eliminated, and the equipment’s references adjusted, to ensure that the machinery can return to its proper standards and technical requirements. The characteristics of medium-level repairs are: a high number of repairs, relatively small workload, short repair time per instance, and the repair costs are included in the production costs. Most of the repair tasks in the maintenance department are carried out on-site in the production workshop by specialized repair technicians; those that require higher levels of expertise can be handled by the mechanical repair workshop. After the repairs are completed, inspections and approvals are conducted, and procedures for handing over the work to the responsible party are followed. 　　(3) Major repair. Major repair refers to a comprehensive repair process that involves replacing the main components in order to restore the equipment’s original precision, performance, and production efficiency. The characteristics of major repairs are: few repair instances, large workload, long duration for each repair, and the repair costs are covered by the major repair fund. After the major repair of the equipment, the quality management department and the equipment management department should organize relevant personnel from the user unit and the repair unit to conduct a joint inspection and acceptance; once it is approved, the user unit and the repair unit shall go through the handover procedures. 　　2. Methods of equipment repair The common methods of equipment repair include the following: (1) The standard repair method, also known as the mandatory repair method, involves preparing a specific repair plan in advance based on the service life of the equipment’s components, specifying the date, type, and details of the repairs to be carried out. When the equipment reaches its specified service life, regardless of its technical condition or the severity of its workload, it must be repaired in accordance with the prescribed scope of work and requirements. This method helps to prepare properly before repairs, ensuring the proper operation of the equipment, but it can sometimes lead to excessive repairs, increasing the cost of repairs. 　　(2) The regular maintenance method refers to the practice of predetermineding, in advance, a fixed sequence for various planned repairs, the intervals between such repairs, and the amount of work required for each repair, based on the service life of the parts, the type of production, the conditions of the workpieces, and relevant standard data. Before repairs, the scope of work is usually determined based on the condition of the equipment. This method facilitates the preparation work before repairs, enables the use of advanced repair techniques, and reduces repair costs. 　　(3) The inspection-followed-repair method refers to a approach in which, based on data regarding the wear of equipment components, only the number of inspections and the timing are predetermined in advance; whereas the specific deadline, type, and details of each repair are determined by the results of the inspections. This method is simple and easy to implement, but due to the poor planning of repairs, excessive wear or failures of components may occur during inspections as a result of subjective errors in assessing the condition of the equipment.