![]() “If the manual states a service is needed at 60,000 hours then any potential issues can be picked up well within the machine’s lifespan and not at end of life, when it might be too late.” “Not everyone’s running 24/7 for 365 days a year,” explains Cowburn. If a compressor is close to, or at the end of life stage, decisions around whether to repair or replace become more critical. If an air compressor has an effective working life of 80,000 working hours, that might translate into a 10-year lifespan for 24 hour a day, year-round usage, or a 20-year lifespan for half of that. Source: “My compressor has failed! Repair or Replace?”, Steve CowburnĪll equipment has a manufacturer-determined life cycle, calculated in hours and clearly stated in product manuals. The closer a repair cost gets to the replacement cost, the more likely a customer will be to replace.” Typical cost breakdown for an air compressor over its operating life. “The choice will almost always be to repair if the cost difference between the two is wide. ![]() Compressed air systems are often the largest single source of energy consumption in a manufacturing facility. The ongoing costs of retaining an ageing compressor must be factored into decision making. As soon as one of those factors changes consistently across services, we know there’s an issue developing.” This is where the third ‘end of life’ stage kicks in and has been where the decisions around repair or replacement of equipment became more complex. If these things measure normal at every service, the bottom of the bathtub curve is sustained. “When techs do regular service, there are about 11 or 12 factors they measure - temperature, pressures, vibrations and so on. Head of Aftermarket at Sullair, Steve Cowburn explains what this looks like from a service team’s perspective. Once infantile failures are dealt with, quality equipment should seamlessly transition into the next stage of non-events: the curve flattens out (like the base of a bathtub) and the machine functions to its capacity for much of its working lifetime, without incident. These ‘infantile failures’ are often covered under warranty and easily resolved via tech support, service, or replacement parts. The first stage deals with early issues stemming from the build or workmanship of new equipment, shortly after purchase - the curve slopes upwards. The bathtub curve deals with three stages within a product’s life cycle. The ‘bathtub curve’ hazard function (blue, upper solid line) is a combination of a decreasing hazard of early failure (red dotted line) and an increasing hazard of wear-out failure (yellow dotted line), plus some constant hazard of random failure (green, lower solid line). For those managing high end equipment, critical to production schedules, particularly during crisis such as the COVID-19 shutdown, its relevancy is starkly obvious. The Bathtub CurveĪ familiar concept for monitoring equipment reliability and life span status across industry is the bathtub curve. Those with a solid understanding of their equipment, where it is in its lifespan and its condition in any given month, certainly have a competitive advantage. ![]() Information around the age of the equipment, records of scheduled servicing, and forecasted production needs are accessible helping to inform decisions around best performance outcomes and when it is time to consider a hefty capital expenditure. The decisions around equipment repair or replacement are usually made in a considered and strategic way – how reliable is the current machinery, and when will the running costs exceed the replacement costs? In industries where compressed air is an essential driver of operations, reliable compressors that provide consistent supply are critical.
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