Guides

Setting the maintenance interval for lifting equipment

The most common answer to the question about the maintenance interval is the inspection interval – and therefore the answer to a different question. Inspection and maintenance are two different things with two different rhythms. Merge them and you either service too rarely or too often.

Author: Dr.-Ing. Philipp Schwittek
Reading time: 7 minutes
Updated: 09. September 2026

The key points

Inspection and maintenance are two measures with two rhythms – DIN 31051 separates them.
The maintenance interval follows from operating hours and load spectrum, not from the calendar.
Environment shortens it: dust, swarf, moisture and cleaning agents matter more than running time.
An hour meter is the cheapest investment in sensible planning.
The first interval is an assumption – it gets corrected at the second visit.

Why the inspection interval is not the answer

A recurring inspection establishes whether a unit is safe. It is mandatory, it assesses, and it changes nothing about the condition. Maintenance intervenes: it lubricates, adjusts and replaces before something fails. DIN 31051 names both as separate basic measures of maintenance management – inspection and servicing. Put both on the same annual date and you get an annual report on what has broken since last time.

Inspection: legally required, assessing, interval from the risk assessment
Servicing: economically justified, intervening, interval from actual use
Both can happen on the same day – but they follow different rules

The three quantities the interval follows from

Operating hours say how much the unit has worked. The load spectrum says how hard – a balancer constantly running at rated load ages faster than one usually half loaded. The environment says how hostile: swarf in the guide, dust in the chain box, cleaning agents on the seals. In practice the environment is the factor that shortens intervals most – and the one that least often enters the calculation.

Operating hours: from the meter, otherwise estimated from cycle and shift pattern
Load spectrum: share of lifts near rated load
Environment: dust, swarf, moisture, cleaning agents, temperature, explosive atmospheres

An hour meter costs almost nothing

On serial hoists the meter is the basis for the theoretical service life under FEM 9.755 anyway. Where it is missing, estimates are made – from cycle time, shift pattern and experience. That works but is imprecise, and the imprecision always runs the same way: the estimate is too low, because people think of the main task and forget the many small lifts in between.

The first interval is an assumption

Nobody can say at the first visit how quickly a particular unit at a particular workstation will wear. So the first interval is a reasoned assumption, and the second visit is the important one: measured chain wear, leakage or joint play show whether the assumption held. That is why we put the measured values in the report even when they are unremarkable – a condition on its own says nothing, a trend says everything.

What this produces in practice

A unit on single-shift work with few lifts a day in a dry environment often manages on an annual rhythm – maintenance then coincides with inspection, and that is fine. A balancer in an assembly cell with three-figure lift counts per shift needs attention considerably more often, usually every six months. A unit in a wet area or with swarf falls below that again. The number is not the result – the reasoning is.

Overview

Inspection and maintenance compared

Aspect	Recurring inspection	Maintenance
Basis	BetrSichV § 14, DGUV rules 52/54	DIN 31051, economics
Mandatory	yes	no
Interval set by	risk assessment	operating hours and environment
Effect	assesses the condition	delays wear
Result	inspection report	a serviced unit
By whom	competent person	instructed skilled staff

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions about Setting the maintenance interval

Is it not enough to have the unit inspected once a year?

Legally it can be, if your risk assessment reaches that conclusion. Economically it is usually too little: the inspection establishes what has worn, it does not prevent it. The breakdown you want to avoid happens between two inspections.

We have no hour meter. What now?

Then it is estimated – from cycle time, shift pattern and lifts per workpiece. We correct the estimate at the second visit against actual wear. A retrofitted meter is cheap and makes planning sound from the first year.

Can our own staff do the servicing?

For many tasks yes, if they are instructed and the work is defined. The recurring inspection, by contrast, requires a competent person under TRBS 1203 – with experience on that class of equipment and freedom from instruction in the assessment. A sensible split is: daily visual checks and simple servicing in house, inspection and measurement from outside.

Does an explosive atmosphere shorten the interval?

As a rule yes, but less because of wear than because of evidence: explosion protection depends on condition and conductivity, and both have to stay documented. Aggressive media are often present too, ageing seals and hoses faster.

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