It’s the little things that make the biggest difference! KRC offers a wide range of machine tool services, but there is one that most people tend to overlook – Preventative Maintenance. Preventative Maintenance is something we say were going to do…get around to…but just never seem to do. Things that are left undone always seem to catch up with us sooner or later. Like that spindle drive that just seemed to burn up last week, or the Turcite that is sticking out from underneath the Z-axis saddle, or the machining center that loses parameters every time the power is shut off to the machine.
Most of these problems can be headed off with a simple Preventative Maintenance (PM) Program. In the case of the spindle drive, the fan went out on the drive and caused it to burn up. The fan cost $100 and the new drive costs $5,000. That’s the cost of failing to have a PM Program. The Turcite issue happened because the Z-axis way cover had chips jammed underneath of it, but the $20 way wipers were worn out. The chips got under the slide and ripped out the Turcite, which will now cost $15,000 to repair. That’s the cost of failing to have a PM Program. The CNC control parameter problem could have been fixed with a new $5 back up battery. It’s costly to tie up an operator or maintenance tech with these types of issues, not to mention the machine down time. Yes, that’s also the cost of failing to have a PM Program.
What’s included in KRC’s Preventative Maintenance Program? Our PM Program is essentially a detailed inspection and cleaning of the machine. Pulling back those way covers once a year and cleaning out the chips can do wonders for your machine. Chip build up can destroy your ways, way wipers, linear guides, and ballscrews. Cleaning and inspecting all the fans in your electrical cabinets can help keep the heat down which will prevent expensive electronics from failing. Replacing the hydraulic oil and filters in your machines once a year will help lower oil temperature and will keep hydraulic lines from leaking or blowing out. Verifying that the proper amount of lube is getting to the spindle and ways will prevent costly repair and rebuilds.
If you’re like most companies in this down economy, production is not quite back to full throttle. Now is the perfect time to perform some preventative maintenance and get all of your equipment back into good working order. KRC can help design and execute an annual or semi-annual Preventative Maintenance Program for all of your machine tools. Not sure if you need an annual or semi-annual program? One year of machine life is based on one shift of operation for one year, so if you have two shifts, that’s the equivalent of two years wear on your machine in one calendar year. If you run more than one shift a day on a machine you should strongly consider a semi-annual plan.
You can always adopt the “if ain’t broke don’t fix it” philosophy, but we all know that the machine will wait until you’re in the middle of an important production run to go down. Preventative maintenance will allow you to schedule your down time instead of it scheduling you. You spend a lot of money for your CNC metal cutting equipment and preventative maintenance can help you protect your investment and increase productivity.
How do I schedule KRC for PM or a quote?
Contact our Service Team by calling us at 1-888-4-KRC-MTS. If you are looking for general information on KRC, a quote, or if you have specific questions you can contact Kevin Sterling directly at (859) 912-2730 or at kgsterling at krcmts.com. We just need a little bit of information to get you set up in our system, and we’ll have a skilled technician on the way to you. We even accept Master Card and Visa for your convenience. At KRC, our goal is to provide you with solutions for all your machine tool needs.
