Maintaining the integrity of your industrial instrumentation is an essential and constant priority. Strictly scheduled preventative maintenance routines are found in nearly every industrial process as a way of maintaining that integrity. Keeping to that schedule can certainly get you ahead in preventing unnecessary downtime. Preventative maintenance is inherently a good practice. However, utilizing smart digital technology to implement predictive maintenance can ensure your process integrity is maintained while also further optimizing the division of labor within your facility.

There are innumerable moving parts to any industrial process. For this article, we’ll focus on how preventative and predictive maintenance apply to liquid analysis equipment, specifically sensors and transmitters. Let’s jump in.

What’s the Difference?

Preventative maintenance typically refers to a structure of maintenance duties and checks that are performed on a strict schedule that is repeated under a variable frame of time. Some facilities may employ these schedules weekly, bi-weekly, etc. Regardless, the preventative maintenance schedule is a prioritized aspect of working in any industrial facility. The goal is to minimize or stop altogether problems before they occur.

So what’s the big deal? Can’t hurt to be cautious, right?

Predictive maintenance has the same goal of preventing issues before they cause unnecessary downtime but without the guesswork. When working within a regimented preventative maintenance schedule, technicians may be servicing sensors or other aspects of a measurement loop that are in perfect health. Predictive maintenance can allow technicians to be available to service loops that are in dire need of attention.

Rethinking Maintenance to be Predictive

There’s nothing wrong with sticking to a schedule. However, re-imagining maintenance in the frame of real-time diagnostics saves time and labor. With smart digital technology, your equipment, specifically your sensors, can monitor themselves and provide a proper alert to any issues needing service in a current, timely manner. M4 Knick’s digital diagnostic diagram provides insight into the most critical functions of a sensor’s performance. Slope, Zero point, Wear, Impedance, and Calibration timers can all be accessed from the transmitter and ported directly to the control room. This allows technicians to substitute servicing a long list of measurement loops for tackling those in the most dire and immediate need of service.

Tools Available to Achieve Predictive Maintenance in Liquid Analytics

Maintaining liquid analytical sensors is key to consistency and accuracy. The sensor diagram feature of the Knick Stratos Multi and Protos transmitters, as well as the Portavo 907 & 908, help operators determine what aspect of instrumentation needs attention. Check out some of our helpful videos on troubleshooting available diagnostic information.