In other words, preventive maintenance is the practice of taking a global and consistent approach to minimizing long-term maintenance requirements and optimizing the operational performance of the various water treatment systems. This practice minimizes the cost of replacing parts and interventions necessary for the proper functioning of the systems.
How to practice preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance is done according to your system and your situation. In other words, there is no universally accepted method of providing quality preventive maintenance. As such, a plan should be written and followed to regularly evaluate the performance of the system. In this plan, you should include the replacement of perishable consumables at the right time. This way, it will be easier to identify system deficiencies early before they become a problem for production or plant processes.
The frequency of preventive maintenance intervention varies depending on several factors. First, process requirements may guide the allowable interval between maintenance. Second, the life cycle of the system components will also affect the time between intervals since parts with a shorter life cycle must be monitored to avoid collecting outliers. Finally, the quality requirements of the process will also have an impact on the maintenance required since the higher the quality requirements, the more frequent the maintenance must be.
What to expect with a preventive maintenance plan
Typical frequency of these visits can range from once a year for the most robust applications (softeners, carbon dechlorination), to once a quarter for less demanding RO applications, or once a month for ultrapure water systems (pharmaceutical, hospital RO).