Everyone knows that keeping rotating equipment clean and free of debris and dirt will prolong the operational life allowing for maximum efficiency and performance. Bearings, seals and other components will last longer and perform better plus repairs and alignments will be faster and easier. Motors, pumps and machinery with excessive dirt build-up will fail more often as they will run hotter and will not perform as expected.
Keeping equipment clean and tidy is not always the easiest thing to do when maintenance and operations has full duty schedule. Even though, making time for cleanup is important. The accumulation of dirt and grease on machinery is unavoidable and to be expected. But excessive accumulations are a poor maintenance practice and procedures should be adopted to allow time for cleanup and dirt removal.
Pictured below is a typical example of excessive dirt and debris buildup. I would imagine this equipment won’t last through its life expectancy. This kind of build-up will almost certainly result in heat related failures of the bearings and other internal components.
