Predictive maintenance applications on machines used in forest products industry

n today‟s world, maintenance planning is a significant action to minimize the malfunctions which happen due to the various reasons in production lines. Because of the high cost in investments of facilities, it is not actually desired to stop even a moment. Dilapidation and malfunctions that occur in machine parts cause damage in them and cease the systems in time. The ability of facilities or systems to achieve the desired level of production and quality performance is closely associated with the maintenance methods determined by the facilities. Preventive maintenance methods have been developed to reduce the costs in line with maintenance. The fundamental principles of predictive maintenance, which is one of the preventive maintenance methods, is to monitor the efficiency power of the working machines with the help of special devices during operation, and to determine whether the machine, part or equipment requires maintenance with the help of the measurement data obtained, and to carry out maintenance activities at the most appropriate time. In this study, vibration measurements were taken periodically on the bearings of pumps operating at high speeds and temperatures, used in a facility producing forest products, using the vibration analysis method, which is one of the predictive maintenance methods, the quality status of the pump parts was checked, bearing failures were detected and the maintenance plan was carried out.