Why fix something that is not broken?

-Hydraulic Hose Dubai

“All hoses will eventually fail, it’s just a matter of when”. A fact that is often ignored at great costs. If a hose suddenly fails, it can have severe consequences of increased material and labour costs, unplanned and unscheduled downtime and most of all, risk of injury to operators working on or near the hose.

“Why spend money to fix something that is not broken? I would rather wait until it fails.”

“I do not have the personnel or time available to fix the hose assembly right now”

“You expect me to shut down my process, just to replace a working hose assembly?”

The above comments reflect the attitude of the “reactive” tribe.

The answer to all the questions is this. Any failure of a hydraulic hose at any time causes losses and unscheduled downtime. Worse, you are risking injury to personnel working in close proximity to hydraulic hoses. One must look beyond the initial costs of a scheduled hose replacement to its total cost in case of a failure, which includes, downtime, cost of assembly and labour, environmental costs due to spillage, resulting clean up costs, and safety considerations.

A planned and scheduled hose replacement program is far more cost effective and ensures safety of personnel.

Would you wait for your car tyres to breakdown before replacing them and risk an accident or downtime in the middle of a highway. No, at the first signs of wear, blisters, bubbles, loss of treads or bulges, you will want to replace the tyres at a time and place convenient to you, rather than the more expensive and risky option of waiting to replace a blown out tyre at an unscheduled time and place.

Similarly, hydraulic hoses show tell tale signs of wear and tear, like cracking, bubbles or blisters. A proactive hose replacement program is part of a preventive maintenance exercise that helps to plan a replacement schedule at a downtime that is convenient, thereby reducing the risk of hazards of hose failure, with much reduced labour costs and avoiding environmental and clean up costs due to unscheduled leakages.

Hoses can fail without warning as it ages and nears the end of its service life. Here are a few things to look out for that may point towards a potential hose failure.

Cracked, damaged, cut or abraded outer layer of hose (reinforcement layer of wires or fabric may be exposed)
Corroded, cracked or damaged end fittings
Minor leaks along the hose or at the end fittings
Twisted, flattened, crushed or kinked hose

As soon as any of these signs are observed, a hose assembly replacement should be immediately scheduled, before a small issue becomes a larger problem.

Remember that by being proactive with timely hose assembly replacement you will reduce safety risks, reduce downtime and resulting losses.

To achieve this, maintenance personnel and on-site service technicians and operators of machinery should perform visual inspections regularly. Constant vigilance with regular visual inspections is the best method to prevent hose failure.

You can develop an internal hose replacement program on your own or take help of professional hydraulic hose companies to help you design a pro-active plan that will meet your requirements.

A Proactive hose assembly replacement plan will ensure maximum safety of personnel and equipment, controlled material and labour costs and also planned and scheduled downtime.

To know more about inspection and preventive maintenance of hydraulic hoses read this

Need help with your hydraulic hose replacement? Contact Inflex Hydraulics today.

For visuals on hose inspection check this exciting and short video on the tube.