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The umbrella term for everything that keeps a work equipment item functional. DIN 31051 divides it into four basic measures: servicing delays wear, inspection establishes the condition, repair restores the target condition, improvement raises reliability without changing the required function. The distinction is not cosmetic – have only inspection done and you will reliably learn when your equipment failed.
The German standard DIN 31051 describes every item by its wear margin: the reserve of possible function that is consumed in operation. Once it is used up, the item fails. Maintenance is everything that influences this course – slowing it, observing it, resetting it or making the item more robust from the outset.
The four basic measures follow from this picture. They differ not in the tools used but in their effect on the wear margin.
Servicing delays the decline: lubricating, cleaning, adjusting, replacing wear parts to plan. Inspection establishes how much margin remains and assesses what follows from it. Repair restores the target condition when a component has reached its limit or failed. Improvement raises reliability or maintainability without changing the required function – for instance a better protected chain guide in a dusty environment.
The statutory periodic inspection is, in essence, an inspection with a defined inspector, scope and record. It does not replace servicing.
Run-to-failure maintenance waits until something breaks. That is acceptable for a lamp, not for a load-bearing element. Preventive, interval-based maintenance intervenes by time or operating hours regardless of actual condition. Condition-based maintenance times the intervention by the measured finding – chain dimension, brake lining thickness, leakage.
On hoists a sensible mix is used: safety-relevant parts by condition with fixed limits, lubrication by interval, and only minor items until failure.
Mistakes almost always arise where two measures are taken for one.
What Entracon offers here is on the matching page.
See what we offer| Measure | Effect | Example on a chain hoist |
|---|---|---|
| Servicing | Delays wear | Lubricate the load chain, adjust the brake |
| Inspection | Establishes and assesses the condition | Measure the chain, assess hook and brake |
| Repair | Restores the target condition | Replace load chain and chain wheel |
| Improvement | Raises reliability with unchanged function | Retrofit an operating hours counter |
No. The periodic inspection is an inspection: it establishes and assesses the condition. The hoist is not serviced by it. Both can take place on the same visit but remain two different things.
Maintenance is the umbrella term for all four measures. Repair is one of them: the work that restores the target condition.
DIN 31051 divides maintenance into the four basic measures. The overarching maintenance terminology is defined in EN 13306.
Anyone who has been instructed and assigned by the employer and knows the operating manual. Work on the brake, load-bearing elements and safety devices belongs in skilled hands; after such work the hoist is inspected before it works again.
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Start typing – for example “balancer”, “SAP” or “pipe stress”.
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