May 2024 Volume 6

MAINTENANCE

Solving the Greatest On-Going Problem: Forge Shop Maintenance By Jeff Fredline

For years, management has struggled to find permanent solutions to production downtime issues. There will always be those times when breakdowns occur. The following are several examples that can be taken into consideration. Maintenance Is Expensive Equipment down time, parts availability, lack of equipment and workforce resources all come into play when reviewing your main tenance position. Most companies do not have the advantage of excessive production capability. Most of the production capability is already committed to daily production demands. At this point it becomes critical to properly understand, troubleshoot, and main tain your production equipment. Proper machine maintenance requires an ongoing inspection and monitoring program for your production equipment. Not only the actual forging machinery, but the billet heaters, robotic transfer equipment, trim presses, and conveyors. Failing to inspect, monitor and perform needed main tenance ALWAYS LEADS to unscheduled down time within the work cell and lost throughput. When we fail to properly maintain our equipment, maintenance costs increase due to now needing major mechanical repairs and the associated costs in addition to the unscheduled downtime. Maintenance Outcome Improvement In the world of machine/plant/operational maintenance our approach is as follows; Formula: Event + Response = Outcome. We all have events that occur on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Now consider our response to the events. Our response offers the opportunity for success or failure. Consider Monitoring the Following: Tonnage: Monitor changes in tonnage generated during the stroke of the machine. Tonnage monitors look at every stroke of the machine. If you use a typical (4) point monitoring system you can see the die space broken into (4) quadrants; LHF, LHR, RHF, RHR. If you observe an increase of tonnage generated through the stroke or a decrease in the tonnage generated in a specific quadrant of the die space it gives us data that shows that we need to investigate the source of the change, thus avoiding a major downtime requirement. Temperature: Monitoring changes in temperature at the bearing surface such as monitoring main bushing temperature, driveshaft bushing/bearing temperature and way surface gives us an early warning system. When a bearing/bushing point raises there is always a cause. It could be something simple such as a broken lubrication

line or contamination in the system. Stop the machine and correct the problem before continuing to run. Maybe you lose two hours, but that is much better than the crankshaft locking up and causing severe wear. This condition left unchecked could easily cost $60-100K. It just makes sense to monitor and correct before you have a major component failure. Clutch/Brake Function and Bull Gear/Flywheel Function: There are a number of items to monitor during the production process. 1. Are the friction surfaces free from excessive dirt and grease/oil? Is there smoke coming off the clutch or brake during operation? 2. If the clutch is pneumatic are there any air leaks when the clutch is actuated? If so, what is the source of the air leak? Please remember that any time there is an air leak during the produc tion cycle you are losing valuable clutch torque, which in turn can cause the clutch to slip during the cycle. The same condition will exist if the clutch is hydraulic and leaks during operation. 3. Is the brake stopping the machine within tolerance? Is your stopping time increasing? Is the brake clean from excessive gear and oil? 4. Excessive end play. Does the bull gear, driveshaft or flywheel assembly move left to right during the press cycle? It can be a symptom of thrust bearing/bushing wear or changes in the bearing stack up. Training Your Personnel As I work in the industry I have heard, "Why should I train the employees? I will spend the time and money to train them and then one of my competitors will come along and poach them.” True, we live in a time that seems to be different. Our turnover rate is even monitored by our customers and has become an important element as we compete for production contracts. What Is Your Maintenance Training Program? Do you have a formal training program for your employees beyond the required lock out/tag out and operational procedures? I recom mend that basic troubleshooting and adjustment training be imple mented. Knowing how to stop, look and listen is a valuable first step. Is there a new sound coming from the machine today? If so, what is the source? Something has changed. Checking the tonnage moni toring for proper machine loading, checking the temperature of bearings. Normally bearings will run at 100 degrees F or so. As an example, if your main bushings, which are normally manufac tured from bronze material, begin to heat up and approach 120-140

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