A hydraulic press is a serious investment in your business and downtime is costly. Lost productivity, unhappy employees sent home from their shift and complaining customers upset about delivery delays are just a few of the things you need to worry about when your hydraulic press isn’t operating optimally. Get proactive and engage in regular preventative maintenance to ensure your press is always working at its best!
Whenever a hydraulic press is down, whether that’s for preventative maintenance or for a much larger issue, there’s a cost to your bottom line. The true costs of an expensive fix are hard to predict but preventative maintenance IS something you can plan and prepare for AND know and manage the costs of. By scheduling preventative maintenance as part of your workflow, you’ll have predictability to your downtime, doing the work in off-peak hours and be better equipped to keep your press in good working order ensuring a longer-lasting life for your investment.
Here are just a few suggestions for creating and following an effective preventative maintenance schedule:
1. Start with a Schedule
You know your business best. Schedule routine preventative maintenance at a time that suits you and make sure the right employees/team members are on hand to get the job done.
2. Have Replacement Parts In Stock
Be proactive about ordering and having common items and consumable replacement parts on hand to ensure you have what you need when you need it! This investment in up front costs of holding stock is far more important to your bottom line than the cost of downtime if your supplier is out of stock when your press needs it most.
3. Follow The Manufacturer’s Guidelines
This is “Maintenance 101.” Just like your car needs a regular oil and filter change, your press was designed by the manufacturer to run optimally given a regular schedule of preventative maintenance. Stick to it!
4. Good Oil Is Clean Oil
Check for oil leaks and keep on top of oil levels – topping them off when necessary. Keep an eye on the oil temperature too. Oil that runs hot leads to breakdowns and oil insufficiency allows air into the liquid being pumped. Contaminated oil can lead to a whole host of issues including the potential for a complete system failure. Ensure you have the right sized micron filters in place and be aware that servo valves typically require a cleaner filtration system so you might have to switch out your filter micron size.
5. Torque and Test
Make time to tighten every nut, bolt and fastener regularly. A hydraulic press can weigh tonnes and the pressure they exert repeatedly, day in and day out, is enormous. In the words of a Jerry Lee Lewis song, “that’s a whole lotta shaking going on.” Regular preventative torqueing and testing is an absolute must! Check your hydraulic lines and fittings while you’re at it!
6. Keep Good Records
Recording your findings regularly is just good business practice. If the press person normally in charge of maintenance is off, you’ll still know what’s been done and what needs to be done. It will help when identifying a problem with your machine and may even support your case should you need to speak with the manufacturer about your press or any kind of warranty issue.
7. Clean Regularly
Dust and dirt are a detriment to the performance of any machine and a hydraulic press is no exception. Keeping your machines clean in an often dusty and dirty environment might be a challenge but it’s important.
8. Perform Safety Checks Daily
Perhaps this point should have been listed first but we’ll end with the mantra “Safety First – Always!” Perform your regular daily safety checks at the start of every shift and in particular always test the E-Stop Safety Device. Any issues here and the whole press should be shuttered immediately.
Performing regular preventative maintenance on your hydraulic press is money well spent. In being proactive, you’re potentially saving the company thousands of dollars in downtime costs, expensive repairs and lost productivity / employee wages. Get proactive and engage in regular preventative maintenance to ensure your press is always working at its best!
Need help with your Preventative Maintenance? Contact us today!
Learn more about Macrodyne Parts and Services
Macrodyne takes pride in offering comprehensive hydraulic press preventative maintenance, inspection, repair, rebuild, and upgrade services for all hydraulic press models, no matter who the original manufacturer was. Our engineering and field service groups work collaboratively to ensure efficient and effective solutions for any field issues or concerns.
Whether it’s providing any kind of services or supplying replacement parts, our dedicated team of professionals are available to assist you.
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