Preventative maintenance is simply performing tasks that will help keep equipment operating well and free of "problems". A good PM program lets you schedule when your equipment will not be in operation. Centrifugal blowers are designed to run 24 hrs/day, 7 days/week, for their entire, 10 year minimum, life. The only time you need to shut them down is to perform the periodic preventative maintenance. That's how your blowers operate, right!

Probably not! Many facilities have excellent PM programs in place whereby the blowers have been operating just fine for well over 10 years. Many more places just don't have effective PM practices, and the blowers breakdown prematurely. For this reason, insurance companies will give discounts to customers who have good quality PM programs in place. Sometimes the discounts are more than they pay me to establish a PM program. So they are actually making money by having me visit periodically. Win-win for all!

Any PM for centrifugal blowers starts with maintaining the bearings. We monitor the vibration levels, the temperatures, and analyze the high frequency spectral data to determine bearing condition. Changing the oil at least once per year, and cleaning & re-packing the bearing grease as needed, are all that is usually required for bearing PM. Occasionally shaft seals will fail prematurely and cause a bearing to wear out, but with regular monitoring, you can usually catch it before it causes a catastrophic blower failure.

Keeping foreign materials out of the blower, especially water & condensate, is often one of the toughest things to prevent. Humidity and moisture laden gas, need to be prevented from entering the blower. Changing inlet filters, cleaning water separators, and keeping piping well drained are also very important PM tasks.

The #1 tool in a PM program is a vibration meter. Monitoring the overall blower/motor vibration is vital to identifying other possible causes of premature failure. With vibration monitoring, you can identify coupling wear, shaft misalignment, looseness, piping strain, rotor imbalance, and much more.

Establish, or improve, your PM program today. Invest in PM, it will save you money!