Availability Increase of Machine Tools through Adapted Maintenance Activities and Assembly-specific Maintenance Intervals

In order to justify the purchasing costs of modern machine tools, availability increase represents a major challenge for companies. Machine availability for a planned application is a function of reliability and necessary maintenance activities. Maintenance activities carried out on a regular basis can prevent sudden and unexpected failures and therefore increase the availability. This can be achieved by either adapting maintenance schedules towards the specific machines' requirements, or by frequently carrying out minor maintenance tasks through a skilled machine operator. Analysing and revising current machine tools with regard to their maintenance-friendliness, servicing and inspection activities leads to a split-up between production and maintenance responsibilities.