Typical Causes of Equipment Breakdown:

(i) Failure to replace worn out parts.

(ii) Lack of lubrication.
(iii) Neglected cooling system.
(iv) Indifference towards minor faults.
(v) External factors (such as too low or too high line voltage, wrong fuel, etc.)
(vi) Indifference towards -equipment vibrations, unusual sounds coming out of the rotating ma-
chinery, equipment getting too much heated up, etc.
Disadvantages of Breakdown Maintenance:
(i) Breakdowns generally occur at inopportunate times. This leads to poor, hurried maintenance and
excessive delays in production.
(ii) Reduction of output.
(iii) Faster plant deterioration.
(iv) Increased chances of accidents and less safety to both workers and machines.
(v) More spoilt material.
(vi) Direct loss of profit.
(vii) Breakdown maintenance practice cannot be employed for those plant items which are regulated
by statutory provisions, for example cranes, lifts, hoists and pressure vessels.
4. Predictive Maintenance:
It is comparatively a newer maintenance technique.
It makes use of human senses or other sensitive instruments such as:
Audio gauges, Vibration analyzers, Amplitude meters, Pressure, temperature and resistance strain
gauges, etc., to predict troubles before the equipment fails. Unusual sounds coming out of rotating
equipment predict a (coming) trouble; an electric cable excessively hot at one point predicts a trouble.
Simple hand touch can point out many unusual (equipment) conditions and thus predict a trouble. In
predictive maintenance, equipment conditions are measured periodically or on a continuous basis and
this enable maintenance men to take a timely action such as equipment adjustments, repair or
overhaul. Predictive maintenance extends the service life of equipment without fear of failure.