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Make a practice to wash your earth moving machinery

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A construction site is a place that is filled with dust, mud and dirt all over it. You probably may not find a single place that is not covered with dirt and people who are there to clean the place finds it extremely difficult to keep the place clean and free of dust. They always have to be on their toes and clean the place after every few hours. One can imagine how important a site office is for visitors and they would not expect that place to be dusty. Therefore, someone will always have to clean it up time and again to keep it look clean. That was about the site office. Now if we talk about how regularly we wash our earth moving machines, we will not find many doing it on regular basis. It is due to the fact that we all believe that earth moving machines are tough metals and they do not need the care that we take for our cars.

Undoubtedly, heavy equipment are tough piece of metal but that does not mean that they be left dirty without being washed frequently. Washing the machine regularly will only increase its longevity and one may also see acceleration in its performance level. If one believes that washing earth moving equipment can be done by an inexperienced person, he may be partly incorrect. An inexperienced person can wash the machine from outside but may not be able to wash the interiors of the machine. He probably may not know if it requires a wash in that area of the machine. So it may not be wise to give the machine to be washed by any person who does it to earn quick buck. On the contrary, it will be prudent to take the machine to an expert mechanic and ask him to get it washed. If possible you can stay there and see how he does the work. It may be a time consuming process but will be worth your effort. Just stay there for the entire time till he gets it washed and see how he washes it so that the next time if you feel confident that you can do it yourself, you do not have to bring the equipment to him. However, if you are not so confident then it is better that you bring it to him for getting it cleansed.

If you are a person who has lot of work to complete in a day and do not have the time to see if the machine is well maintained, then you should give that responsibility to someone who can get the work done. Remember, maintaining the machine is of utter importance as it only enhances the life of the machine. You may find the operator the best person to take up this responsibility as he would be the one who will be dealing with the machine on a regular basis. So you can rely on him if you find yourself with short of time to do the cleaning stuff.

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Skipping Monthly Maintenance Can Deteriorate The Quality Of An Equipment

The heavy equipment working on the site has to go through a lot on a daily basis. For instance an excavator which is given the job to dig the earth becomes covered with dust by the end of the day and if it is not washed properly, it may start developing problems. This instance suggests that we need to clean the equipment daily if it is completely drenched in dirt. But it also needs something more than just a mere washing. It is very important to service the machine at least once in a month. By servicing a machine, it implies that an expert hand is required to undo the parts of the machine so that it can go to the depth of it and wipe away the dust that gets accumulated in the most interior parts of the machine.

It is not particularly the engine that needs to be taken care the most. It is perhaps the overall stuff that needs to be properly checked and if anything seems to be not working up to the mark needs to be replaced by a workable part.  Let us first do a “Root Cause Analysis” of why do we need to service the machine and then we may talk about how we maintain it.

Not cleaning the machine may pave way for the dust to settle in the most interior parts of the machine:-  We all have seen how a construction site looks like. It’s way too dusty and becomes almost suffocating for a person to stand in and work all day. Imagine what a machine has to go through. Just because it can’t react doesn’t means it doesn’t go through complications. Not trying to win any human sentiments, machines convey a lot to us through its performances. If it is not washed daily, there are high chances of dust getting settled down in the most interior parts of the machine causing blockage. With time, this will deteriorate the quality of the parts of the machine which eventually will make the part obsolete. Getting a new part in the mid of work will day the entire day’s productivity for a toss and will eventually lead to losses to the business.

May result in blockage in the engine:-  The dust may settle down near the engine blocking the flow of oil to the engine. That will cause more friction in the piston which will ultimately crack down the engine.

Certain preemptive steps should be taken to minimize the problem and that could be done only through servicing the machine on a monthly or on need-on basis.

Follow the manual stringently:-  The user-manual gives you plenty of steps that can be taken to prevent any complication with the machine. One should make it a rule to read the user manual before he starts using it. It also states how one should keep the machine to increase its longevity.

Take help of an expert to get things fixed:-  If there happens to be any problem with the machine, it’s prudent to take help of an expert to get it fixed. Please don’t try to fix it yourself or you may make it worst.