Maintenance is no false economy….

£480,000: That is what I was told it costs one of the UK’s largest automotive manufacturers PER HOUR when they experience downtime on their paint plant.

Regardless of your industry and the product you manufacture, production downtime is a crucial performance indicator because of the direct impact it can have on your bottom line.

When I speak with customers across the UK regarding their attitude towards the maintenance of climate control for electrical equipment, it tends to be way down the priority list for various reasons:

“I will fix a problem when it occurs”

In the past, the approach of reactive maintenance was seen as acceptable for most businesses. However times have changed. The key goals of any sized business are now becoming “increased throughput”, “cost efficiency”, “continuous improvement”. Potential roadblocks to output targets need to be nipped in the bud and nobody wants to be the one in the morning meeting explaining why yesterday’s targets weren’t met!

Even something as simple as a weekly visual check of cooling equipment filter mats or any system alarms can alert you in good time to call in the experts.

“My equipment is currently operating; I haven’t serviced it in months/years”

The longer your cooling equipment is left unchecked, the higher the risk. For example, if a fan unit is in a dusty environment and the filter mat becomes clogged, this will reduce its effectiveness to cool the electrical equipment. This in turn can increase the enclosure internal temperature.

Broadly, every 10°C rise in internal temperature of an enclosure halves the life of the equipment within and increases the likelihood of an unexpected failure.

“We just open the enclosure door for a while”

If you are using large fans to blow ambient air into an open enclosure you could be doing more harm than good - not to mention the health and safety dangers inherent in this approach.

An enclosure’s purpose is to create an environment in which electrical equipment is protected from ambient contaminants. Opening the door allows a constant stream of dirty air to be pulled into the enclosure. This will gather in switchgear/connection points and can cause short circuits or block on-board fans which will result in damage to componentry, reduced life and possible critical component failure.

This tactic can indicate that the cooling equipment is not adequate for the installation, or it requires some level of maintenance to bring it back into working order.

A RiAssure FREE Cooling Review from Rittal means a local Climate Control expert will perform a short appraisal of your existing equipment, give you honest feedback as to whether the equipment is adequate, and also provide details/quotations for a service contract to suit your ongoing needs.

“I don’t have the manpower/we have a company who does that work for us”

Many companies I visit tell me that they outsource their servicing to a third party, however I tend to question what checks they are performing, given that I have often been called onto site because an enclosure is overheating!

Climate control equipment is becoming increasingly efficient, while new, sophisticated, cutting-edge technology is launched every year.  The only guarantee of the highest level of checks and service will come from engineers who have been trained by the manufacturers about the technology and its detailed workings.
Rittal has been manufacturing industry-leading climate control equipment for 30 years and all of our service staff are highly trained on the whole portfolio to ensure they can remedy your issues. 

Take the introductory example again and turn the spotlight onto your business. Everyone has budgets and savings targets to hit, so ask yourself, can you afford NOT to have correct maintenance in place?

Karl Lycett is Rittal’s Product Manager for Climate Control