Diagnosis and maintenance of industrial large fan failure

In the hot summer, industrial fans can be said to be essential equipment for factory workers. However, occasional malfunctions may occur, causing the fan to stop working. This is a cruel thing for employees in hot and stuffy factories. Although most industrial fan manufacturers provide warranty services for their products, it's better to prevent malfunctions and arrange repairs in advance rather than wait for days for maintenance. Therefore, as industrial fan users, the equipment department personnel should also understand the common diagnostic and repair methods for malfunctions.

Fault Classification

To prevent and repair industrial fan malfunctions, we first need to understand common malfunctions. Malfunctions can be classified as follows:

1. Degradation: After the industrial fan is put into use, various irreversible changes such as wear, fatigue, and corrosion will occur in the components over time due to various factors, which will gradually reduce the equipment's functionality. For example, bolt wear.

2. Human-induced: Equipment accidents caused by poor management or violation of regulations, such as cutting off power supply leading to fan emergency stops.

3. Intermittent: Loss of certain functions for a short period of time, which can be restored with minor repairs. For example, control box code errors, overload, etc.

4. Permanent: Certain parts have been damaged and need to be replaced or repaired to restore functionality. For example, the burning of the motor requires replacement or repair before the fan can be used again.

5. Random: Industrial fan malfunctions occur randomly and cannot be predicted.

6. Regular: Industrial fan malfunctions that occur at similar intervals, which are predictable. For example, replacing the motor lubricating oil.

Fault Diagnosis

Industrial fan malfunctions are diverse and can occur independently or interrelatedly. It's difficult to identify by bare eyes alone. Therefore, it's necessary to apply fault diagnosis techniques to monitor and diagnose the fan. By judging whether mechanical equipment is operating normally or experiencing an anomaly based on the various information generated during equipment operation, machine faults, and potential accidents can be detected in a timely manner, ensuring that regular maintenance can be predictably planned for significant cost savings.

There are two ways to diagnose industrial fan malfunctions:

1. Sensory judgment method: Maintenance personnel uses their own experience to judge the fan's malfunction through sight, sound, touch, etc. During the fan's operation, it may emit noise and vibration. Through noise and vibration analysis, the fan's status can be effectively identified. Examiners can observe the wear debris to determine the wear status of parts, such as bearing or gear wear residuals that can be extracted from lubricants. This is a relatively rough approach, and it requires abundant work experience. Its accuracy is also not very precise.

2. Instrument-assisted judgment method: As sensory judgment is limited in its application scope, it's necessary to rely on instruments to enhance human sensory judgment ability. This is a more scientific approach. Modern equipment automation requires increasingly higher operational standards and fault identification. Automation requires sensors and computers to achieve monitoring and control. Sensors serve as input elements to the system. Computers process and analyze inputs, forming a complete system with equipment components and circuits, thereby detecting whether the machine parts are intact.

Fault Repair

Depending on the extent of damage diagnosed, repair procedures can range from minor replacements to extensive overhauls:

1. Overhaul: Complete repair of the entire fan. It requires disassembling, cleaning, and inspecting all parts. Repair or replacement of basic parts, such as motor components and blade components, needs to be done to restore the equipment's performance to its factory or normal working standard. Since overhauling involves larger workloads and part replacements, repair costs are relatively high, and the period is long.

2. Partial repair: Repair of a section of the fan to restore the equipment's original performance, such as replacing one or more blades. Partial repairs can be completed quickly without affecting production tasks.

3. Minor repair: Mainly replenishing parts that have reached their maintenance intervals, cleaning drive systems, and replacing lubricant oil.

4. Emergency repair: Repair of a small part of an industrial fan that causes equipment downtime and needs immediate attention, such as adjusting the speed to recover normal function.

Equipment Transformation

This involves applying new technology, materials, and structures to modify existing equipment, overcoming original defects, adding innovative features, enhancing precision, and reliability, among others. For example, many large logistics bases have many fans that require centralized control and monitoring, so intelligent control components and programs can be installed.

By using fault diagnosis techniques to monitor and diagnose industrial fans regularly, machine faults, and potential accidents can be detected in a timely manner. This can transform periodic maintenance into predictive and scheduled maintenance, significantly improving the safety and reliability of industrial fan operation, saving time-saving and maintenance costs, and generating significant economic benefits and employee satisfaction for enterprises.