Fan Maintenance Service Lowers Operating Costs
Air movement specialist Fanquip has launched a fan maintenance service across all industries.
Recognising that most operators take no notice of their fans and associated systems until there is a physical breakdown, Fanquip’s maintenance service offers a way to regularly check the status quo of a fan-driven ventilation or heating system and ensure the operator stays one step ahead of problems.
As many fan systems operate 24 hours a day, most components - although heavy duty - are under a lot of operating stress so it makes sense to properly inspect these on a regular basis. Bearings tend to be the first to go in an industrial fan system, hence reducing performance; but there are many other components that need to be checked, such as wiring, casing, fixtures, fan blades, motors, even the ducting that links a fan system with the general workplace.
During a recent maintenance inspection for one of its clients, Fanquip engineers found a hole in the underside of a section of ducting that conveys a high rate of air, day in day out. This problem in the ducting is virtually impossible to detect without someone taking a thorough look and performing the necessary testing to show up any problem of this nature.
Because Fanquip engineers are trained to detect subtle pressure differences throughout a ducting system they were able to identify that there was in fact a pressure drop along a specific section of ducting and hence found the hole. But had this client been performing regular maintenance on its entire fan system setup, this fault would have been easily discovered and repaired and the system would have not experienced a performance drop.
Even a problem with bearings is very difficult to detect. When a bearing system is completely worn out, it is of course easy to notice, because performance is very poor and noise is normally emitted. The real problem is that period of time when bearings first begin to reach the end of their life cycle and the months - and sometimes years - that elapse between that point and the moment management discovers there is actually a problem.
Those months or years represent a lot of loss in productivity and energy because business went on as usual while the fan system was experiencing a slow decline.
The message from Fanquip is that although the fan system might still look and sound as if it works properly, without a thorough and professional maintenance check the performance of the system may not be that good.
