How to check component health without machine downtime

The impact caused by machine breakdown can be catastrophic. An unexpected failure of any wearing component can bring an entire plant to a halt for hours or even days, racking up costly repair bills and high costs of lost production.

Regularly checking the health of all vulnerable parts can help to predict a fault before it occurs, allowing repair to be scheduled during planned maintenance times. This can prevent unplanned downtime, along with avoiding the consequences of an unexpected failure.

However, many businesses associate machine health checks with added downtime, leaving them reluctant to perform these predictive maintenance checks.

With SKF’s TKRS range of stroboscopes, this doesn’t have to be the case.

SKF TKRS stroboscopes allow visual inspection of moving machinery, without having to turn off the machine during production. This facilitates the early detection of faults in components, so that repairs can be scheduled within planned maintenance windows.

The stroboscopes have between 3 and 118 ultra-bright LEDs depending on the model. When aimed at moving machinery, a series of flashes from the device appear to freeze motion, enabling effective visual inspection of moving components to take place and the identification of visible part numbers.

A vast range of components can benefit from inspection with an SKF stroboscope, including fans, gears, belts, chains, couplings and shafts. All of these components can be visually inspected during machine operation, with no downtime required.

TKRS stroboscopes feature an ergonomic and robust design, making them suitable for use in most industries, in even the harshest conditions, such as the mining and quarrying industry. The full range of SKF stroboscopes is portable, with TKRS 11, 21 and 31 powered by AA batteries, whilst TKRS 41 makes use of a rechargeable li-ion battery. This means that they can be used even in remote locations.

For more information on the TKRS range of SKF stroboscopes, and to find out how they could benefit your business, contact your local sales team today.