Discussion on the Importance of Preventive Maintenance for Compressor Equipment

As a type of mechanical equipment, compressors will develop faults or early signs of failure after a period of operation due to wear, deformation, corrosion, 

blockage and other factors. Therefore, maintenance is both normal and necessary. Nevertheless, there are various forms of compressor maintenance. Chronologically, 

maintenance falls into two main categories: breakdown maintenance and preventive maintenance.

Breakdown maintenance refers to repairs carried out only after compressor equipment malfunctions or suffers performance degradation. In the early 20th century, 

mechanical equipment was generally repaired only after failure, namely breakdown maintenance. Its biggest advantage is fully utilizing the service life of components and system parts. 

However, breakdown maintenance is unplanned maintenance. It wastes considerable residual service life of parts, and also has certain defects and limitations.

A common question arises: which is better, breakdown maintenance or preventive maintenance? Most people would likely opt for preventive maintenance. 

Yet few seriously consider exactly how preventive maintenance outperforms breakdown maintenance.

Preventive maintenance has two specific modes. The first is time-based preventive maintenance: scheduled shutdown overhauls arranged in line with the wear cycle of compressor equipment. 

The second is condition-based maintenance: monitoring equipment status, arranging timely repairs once hidden troubles or potential failures are identified, so as to eliminate faults in the embryonic stage.

Another form of preventive maintenance is opportunistic maintenance. It means conducting preventive maintenance by taking advantage of off-peak production seasons, holidays, weekends, 

or shutdown overhaul windows of upstream and downstream equipment. The "opportunity" in opportunistic maintenance allows for properly extending or shortening maintenance intervals, 

provided verification confirms such adjustments will not cause major damage to equipment. This type of maintenance is defined as opportunistic maintenance. 

No matter which preventive maintenance mode is adopted, interventions are implemented before equipment failure and shutdown, with the aim of avoiding malfunctions.

1. Reduce and avoid unplanned shutdowns. Most modern enterprises arrange production based on customer orders with strict delivery deadlines. For enterprises practicing lean production, 

2. just-in-time production and zero inventory are typical features. As a critical power source, compressor shutdown will inevitably disrupt production procedures, delay order fulfilment, 

3. and severely damage corporate profits and reputation. Preventive maintenance avoids extensive unplanned downtime and guarantees on-time delivery, which carries great significance.

4. Reduce cascading equipment damage and extend equipment service life. Equipment damage usually starts with local failures or defective individual components. 

5. Such defects then affect other parts in a chain reaction and eventually trigger serious breakdowns. Since compressors often serve as power sources, 

6. deterioration or failure of one compressor component will not only cause faults within the compressed air system, but also propagate through compressed air pipelines to end-user equipment. For instance, 

7. a faulty air filter may lead to corrosion of air nozzles and pressure gauges — this is the domino effect within the system. Preventive maintenance can mitigate or avert minor damage, 

8. remove small hidden risks promptly, and prevent faults from escalating into severe breakdowns.

9. Cut maintenance costs. Admittedly, inappropriate "preventive maintenance" will raise rather than lower costs, a phenomenon known as maintenance redundancy or over-maintenance. 

   By contrast, breakdown maintenance means technicians diagnose faults amid sudden, urgent shutdowns before sourcing tools, spare parts and materials. 

10. While actual repair may only take half a day, preparation work can consume one and a half to two days, drastically lowering time efficiency and pushing up maintenance costs. 

11. Coupled with cascading damage and additional component replacement losses caused by breakdown failures, total maintenance expenditure rises further.

12. This article refers to properly implemented preventive maintenance that delivers cost savings. Generally speaking, planned work is 3 to 4 times more efficient than unplanned work. 

13. Thanks to its planning nature, preventive maintenance allows advance preparation of maintenance schemes, drawings, tools, lifting appliances, auxiliary materials and spare parts. 

14. Once equipment is disassembled for overhaul, repair work can be completed efficiently.

4. Lower risks of safety incidents. Preventive maintenance eliminates local, minor or incipient equipment defects, 

5. thereby independently reducing the likelihood of safety accidents. Severe compressor failures that could have been avoided often escalate continuously due to lack of preventive maintenance measures, 

6. and eventually lead to serious consequences, ranging from compressor head seizure and bent bearings to catastrophic equipment loss and personal injury.

7. Prevent or mitigate mass quality defects and product scrap. Equipment failures frequently result in large-scale defective or scrapped products. 

8. Unqualified oil content in compressor exhaust air may render food and electronic products unusable; unstable discharge pressure can lead to textile scrap. 

9. Although post-processing equipment such as air receivers can partially alleviate such issues, they inevitably increase users’ production costs and operational risks. Numerous similar cases exist. 

10. Therefore, preventive maintenance can, to a certain extent, reduce or avoid mass quality deterioration and product scrap during equipment failure periods, lowering economic losses caused by scrap resulting from malfunctions.

11. Enable more proactive, planned and forward-looking operations. Opportunistic preventive maintenance facilitates more rational planning of factory production schedules, 

    Beverage, refrigerator, freezer and air conditioner manufacturers face tight production schedules in summer and lighter workloads in winter; 

12. they can arrange preventive maintenance mainly in winter. The tobacco industry sees peak workloads in winter and a slower pace in summer, 

13. so opportunistic maintenance can be scheduled in midsummer. When maintenance workload surges, enterprises can appropriately adjust maintenance intervals to efficiently utilize maintenance manpower and facilities.

14. In short, opportunistic preventive maintenance improves the flexibility of work planning.

15. working hour arrangements and resource allocation. Many factories carry out overhaul shifts at night, on weekends or at month-end, taking advantage of gaps between production tasks. 

16. Synchronized maintenance implemented in many steel mills also falls under opportunistic maintenance, leveraging shutdown windows of upstream and downstream facilities.

17. Reduce risks of environmental pollution. Similar to mitigating safety hazards, preventive maintenance effectively curbs environmental damage risks. Leakage from equipment, 

18. especially facilities handling toxic gas and liquid, will pollute the environment; equipment noise also creates pollution. 

19. In-plant water treatment and air purification equipment have a direct bearing on emissions and environmental impacts.

20. Support energy conservation and consumption reduction. Abnormal equipment operation usually increases friction and energy consumption. 

21. Preventive maintenance ensures smooth, stable operation of equipment and facilities, effectively cutting energy use and sustaining energy-saving performance.

Some users purchase high-efficiency energy-saving equipment, yet report loss of energy-saving performance after one or two years of operation. 

Improper maintenance is a major contributing factor. As heavy energy consumers, compressors require not only proper procurement but also scientific operation, 

so as to truly achieve energy saving and consumption reduction targets.