My name is Olly and I successfully completed my Engineering Apprenticeship in 2019, after which I secured a full-time role as a Maintenance Fitter in Southampton. Work within the maintenance is varied, but to give you an example of the daily tasks I am usually involved in, I will focus on the procedure when checking for faults with cranes.
First – I need to make sure I am wearing full 5-point personal protective equipment (PPE) which is an ABP requirement to ensure the safety of all employees working in operational areas. I ask myself - have we got safety boots, high-vis gear, a hard hat, gloves and glasses? If the answer is yes, it’s okay to proceed with the task. It’s important to note that I need to have read all ‘Risk Assessments’ and ‘Safe Systems of Work’ information for maintenance on cranes prior to undertaking any actions on the crane.
Some cranes, such as our Gottwald cranes, have automatic grease pumps fitted around the crane to keep the components lubricated whilst in use. This is a vital part of prolonging the life of parts such as slewing rings and bearings along with parts of the jib like the jib heel pins.
Using the diagram shown in the picture below, we can locate different parts of the pump that the grease must go through. The control piston is what controls the amount of grease pumped out with every spurt of the pump.
By loosening off the counter-nut, we can open the window for more grease to be allowed out. If the counter-nut is too tight, the grease won’t be able to be released through the pump and therefore the fault will be displayed as “lube distribution failure”.
This is a relatively simple fix for a fault that can be quite tricky to locate.
