What is Preventive Maintenance?
Preventive maintenance is a type of equipment maintenance, which is a service to inspect and repair equipment and facilities in a predetermined cycle before fatal failures occur.
Maintenance is an activity to maintain and manage facilities and equipment in a sound condition, and can be broadly classified into corrective maintenance and preventive maintenance As the name suggests, corrective maintenance refers to activities to repair and restore facilities and equipment after they have failed and are no longer able to perform their functions, while preventive maintenance is a service to prevent failures by replacing parts and performing other maintenance and adjustments before they occur.
Uses of Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is a maintenance method used in various industrial fields and infrastructures to prevent sudden accidents and unplanned failures. In particular, when a failure or accident leads to serious damage, or when significant damage is expected due to a sudden breakdown, post-facto maintenance is not acceptable, so the reliable implementation of preventive maintenance is extremely important and is used in the following areas
- Repair of exterior walls of buildings and other general structures
- Pipelines and various types of piping, such as sewage lines Wiring
- Road surfaces and road appendages
- Various bridges on rivers
- Tunnels
- Dams
- Erosion control levees and coastal levees
Harbors - Airports and navigation signs
- Civil engineering facilities
Parks - Sprinklers
- Fire alarms
- Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
- Earth leakage breakers
In the manufacturing industry, they are also used to ensure efficient production through the stable operation of machinery and equipment in factories.Specific examples of their use include the following
- Periodic bearing replacement
- Air and hydraulic pressure checks
- Greasing of robots and chains
- Belt inspection
- Inspection of cutting tools, presses, and various other processing machines, etc.
As described above, preventive maintenance has great advantages such as efficient maintenance activities because it enables preparation for inspection and replacement in advance and minimizes damage from breakdowns and accidents, but it can also lead to excessive inspection and replacement at times when it is not originally necessary. This is called overmaintenance.
Conversely, it is also impossible to completely prevent facilities and equipment from breaking down prior to maintenance due to the failure of preventive planning.
Types of Preventive Maintenance
Utilization-Based Maintenance (UBM)
Usage-based Maintenance , also called UBM, is a preventive maintenance method that determines maintenance work based on the number of times equipment is operated. In some cases, it is based on the average daily usage and the number of times the equipment is used.
Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)
Condition-based maintenance is also called CBM (Condition-based Maintenance), in which repair or replacement is performed when the condition of equipment deteriorates to a certain level. Vibration measurement using vibration sensors, waveform analysis of analog signals such as electric current, etc.