It is essential for all manufacturing industries that machinery and equipment operate efficiently and effectively. Preventive maintenance helps your compressed air system to run smoothly at high efficiency and to have a long life.

 What is Preventive Maintenance?

Compressors are machines that take an active role in manufacturing and need periodic maintenance to operate efficiently. Preventive maintenance refers to the steps taken to prevent compressor failure. These steps include activities such as cleaning, lubricating, tightening and replacing worn parts. These maintenances, which extend the life of the compressor and enable it to operate efficiently, are usually planned and performed periodically. Preventive maintenance includes inspection of all components on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annual basis in order to ensure the system is operating efficiently.

Performing preventive maintenance of the compressor regularly without interruption allows you to prevent malfunctions and downtimes that will cause greater costs for you in the future. Purpose of preventive maintenance is to detect mechanical problems before they progress and cause costly repairs and manufacturing downtime.

 What is Done in Compressor Preventive Maintenance?

The most important components to be checked within the scope of preventive maintenance are filters, compressor oil, vents, belts and motor bearings.

First, the compressor air filter should be checked. There is an air filter to ensure clean air entry into the compressor and to discharge the clean compressed air. Unwanted substances such as pollen, dust, oil and water in the air taken from the atmosphere accumulate in the air filter. In this context, the air filter in the compressors should be regularly cleaned and replaced when necessary, according to the operating time and frequency of the compressor. Not replacing the filter will negatively affect the air quality and cause problems inside the compressor.

Another point to be considered while performing preventive maintenance of the compressor is the compressor oil. There are various moving parts working in sync with each other inside the compressors. A lubrication system is used to prevent these parts from corroding each other. However, the oil used has a lifetime. This lifetime is once a year for a compressed air system that is not operated very often. However, if you are using the compressed air system actively in your enterprise, it may be necessary to replace the oil at this point without waiting for the annual maintenance. Failure to check the oil regularly causes the working elements of the compressed air system to corrode each other. Once corrosion takes hold, rust can spread and certain mechanical parts can wear out. To make sure your air compressor is healthy, the oil level needs to be checked daily.

Another part that needs to be checked during preventive maintenance is the oil filter. The oil in the compressed air system we mentioned above is used after it is filtered through this oil filter. This way, it is ensured that there are no unwanted substances in the oil. Since the oil is used continuously in the compressor, the active use of the oil filter causes it to lose its function over time. Oil filters should be checked weekly and replaced at the recommended interval of 2000 to 4000 hours of use, depending on your unit. If during your inspection you observe that the oil filter is heavily coated with oily residues, you should replace it before the recommended time.

It should be checked whether there is any leakage during compressor maintenance. Compressors start to leak air at the pipe connection points, especially as the pipes wear out and lose their properties over time. Therefore, hose connections must be checked during compressor maintenance. In addition, the compressed air tank also wears out over time. It should be checked whether air is leaking or not from these worn out parts. Air leakage in the compressor will cause the compressor to be inefficient and not operate at full capacity.

Regular inspection of compressor belts is also important. Belts should be checked weekly, tension adjusted if necessary, and replaced if wear is observed.

 What Benefits Does Compressor Preventive Maintenance Provide?

Preventive maintenance ensures that the compressed air system operates efficiently, prevents malfunctions, and provides longer operation. Preventive maintenance helps you save by minimizing expensive emergency repairs. Parts replaced with regular checks prevent major malfunctions that may occur, which protects you from major costs that you will incur with manufacturing downtimes and unplanned major repairs.

Compressors with regular checks and preventive maintenance work will less noise. After compressor maintenance, you may notice that the compressor heats up less during operation. The reason for this is that it consumes less power and the parts inside are replaced. The biggest benefit of air compressor maintenance is that it increases the life and efficiency of the machine itself and the system as a whole.

 What Should Be Considered While Performing Compressor Preventive Maintenance?

First of all, if you have decided to perform compressed air system maintenance, you should definitely get support from authorized services. Most compressors are worse than before following unauthorized intervention and the use of sub-industry parts. That's why you should definitely prefer an authorized service for maximum efficiency.

It should be checked whether there is air leakage in the compressor during compressor preventive maintenance. During compressor maintenance, the parts should be replaced if necessary. Sometimes we see that alternative solutions such as washing and cleaning old parts are used instead of replacement. However, this is extremely inconvenient. Original parts must be used during compressor maintenance.

If you want to use your compressed air system efficiently for a long time, you should not neglect the preventive compressor maintenance. Compressor maintenance is not as costly as it is thought. The money you spend on compressor maintenance returns to you as productivity, efficiency and long machine life.