6 regular Maintenance Tips for Automated Machines

Automated machines have revolutionized our way of working. Before we had people working menial repetitive jobs that gave no satisfaction or fun. Those jobs were done slowly, and in a new age, they weren’t profitable. With tech jumps every few years or so we lived to see a first machine being programmed to do a menial job quicker and more precise than a person would do. 

At first, we transferred all menial jobs to machines and as they proved to be worth it, we decided to give them more important jobs. Now you have automated machines that can land aircraft, diagnose cancer or even trade on the stock market instead of us. 

Now, when on the topic of automated machines, today’s article will be about tips and trick regarding their maintenance. Every machine has a period of operation and has to have maintenance intervals to keep it in good shape and doing its job. Below you will see what exactly you have to do to keep your machine in great working condition read the article through the end.

If you are on the lookout for one of these machines or a system that will maintain them visit this website for more information.

1. Be informed

Every machine has a specific maintenance interval, and they are set by the manufacturer. What is important to do here in order not to miss an important interval is always be informed about the specific machine you own. Know when it was set up when it started its life cycle when it is due for its first, second, or any other next check or maintenance. Many of these machines have moving and still parts, but they also have a lot of electronics, circuits, chips and whatnot which has to be looked out for. Early machines used to have one specialist doing the maintenance while the newer ones can have more. Ones that care about moving parts while others for its electronic components, programming options and more.

2. Be careful

Most of these machines have to be fully stopped and without any power to them to do full maintenance or just a regular checkup. Safety always has to be your number one concern. If there is a slight problem that you can solve or is it a recurring problem that you already learned how to handle, always make sure to keep track of what you do and where everything goes. Since these automated machines are getting complicated by the year it is always important to take a lot of pictures of what was where if you have to call in a repair guy afterwards. Next important thing is to watch what you do with the program part of your machine because it is the easiest way to render your machine useless for some time.

3. Preventative maintenance

This is also important for these kinds of machines. This means that you will have to look at them from time to time even if it is still not the time for its regular checkup. This is important especially with machines that use lubrication and have a lot of moving parts that can get damaged during operation. Preventative maintenance is important for one more reason – it might save you a headache or two if you managed to catch a problem before it occurs. It is always less damage to change something before it breaks and renders the machine useless, or too expensive to repair.

4. Always have spare parts

These machines can have big problems that require a specialist to come and handle them, but in most case scenario is that you have small issues that can be fixed by you or the worker in charge of these things. All you need is the machine’s manual and you can tackle the problem quickly and easy. The only thing that is important here is to always have spare parts at hand, so your production line, or whatever you do with the machine suffers as less as possible. This is all common sense and it is something every owner of this type of equipment should do.

5. Keep everything clean

To keep this type of equipment top notch they have to be very clean. A lot of moving parts lubricated parts, electrical parts usually don’t endure that long in a dirty environment. If there are dust, debris, metal or wooden shavings there is a huge chance that they will block certain ducts, guides or some oil squirters and cause catastrophic damage to the tool. This is why you have to regularly check your equipment for cleanliness and try to keep it as neat as possible. This way you will prolong the life of your machine and prevent any problems or damages in between regular maintenance. 

6. Understand your machine

Although this is something that might seem odd, it is a very important part of maintenance. If you don’t know anything about your tool you might end up misusing it or overstressing it and that could lead to catastrophic failures that can occur frequently and sometimes it might render your warranty useless. Every machine operates on different parameters, has different pressure and breakpoints and this is why you have to know as much as possible about it and in return, you will, in some way, prolong the preventative maintenance of your equipment. 

All in all, maintenance is important for everything in life. When it comes to high tech equipment and this kind of machines maintenance, regular or periodic is of utmost importance if you want it to operate successfully for longer periods. Within this article, you saw that there is a sort of maintenance you can do by yourself while others have to be done by professionals. Ones that you do by yourself have to be extremely careful and backed by machines manual and at least an elementary knowledge of its operation. Professionals are always the best option but they are there for complicated tasks and for big problems which can’t easily be tackled by you or your employees.