Costly particulate contamination slowly degrades and jams machine components causing product defects, shorter machine life., increased production downtime and decreased energy efficiency. Even the smallest amount of water, or the most microscopic particles, can ·eventually grind a machine to a halt. Yet, maintenance has historically been a ·reactive type activity .. When a machine breaks down, maintenance personnel give the failed components the “4R Treatment”- that is remove, repair, rebuild and/or replace. When evidence suggests that material degradation and/or deterioration is taking place at an accelerated rate, the cause has been determined and. action taken to correct the problem. In today’s world when there are increasingly complex- systems., maintenance personnel must supplement such traditional reactive maintenance Practices with proactive methods that can identify aberrant root causes of failure long before materials or component performance degradation occurs. No maintenance discipline has previously taken the micro view on machine damage concentrating on the· causes instead of the symptoms of wear. Proactive maintenance is that discipline, and it is quickly being recognized worldwide as the most important means of extending machine life.

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Process plants and manufacturing companies have machinery lubricated by mineral-based or synthetic fluids and other machinery powered by lower viscosity hydraulic fluids. We define equipment of this type as fluid-dependent systems. Examples of this include gear boxes, process pumps, gas compressors, speed reducers, blowers, hydraulic metal working machines and machine tools.

When machines have wear, corrosion and associated problems that eventually lead to corrective action, we categorize these problems as internal state failures. Often, equipment operates infrequently, under very low loads, and away from the main production processes. In such cases, it may be perfectly acceptable to operate this equipment with scheduled maintenance activities or simply on a breakdown basis.

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