The advice offered at the Technical Corner is given freely and without prejudice. Any recommendations involving action to be taken should only be carried our by qualified personnel and adhering strictly to any manufacturers' guidelines and warnings.

When in doubt, ASK!

Simple monthly maintenance can greatly enhance the life expectancy of most equipment. No expense is necessary as cleaning materials are often on site, and the work itself only lasts a few minutes.

To prolong the lifespan of your ride equipment, you should take note of the following general information:

• Cleaning
• Humidity
• Cooling
• Power Supply
• Lubrication
• Additional Equipment
• Switching Off Equipment

• Hydraulics
• Mechanics
• Capsule
• Electronics
• Tips

Keeping equipment clean is very important in the Asia Pacific region. This is especially so for control cabinets and electronics.

The high humidity found in most Asian countries can cause even normal dust to 'stick' to internal components. Once attached, this quickly builds up and severly impairs the components' ability to dissipate heat.

Most electronic components are quite sensitive to heat and this restriction in cooling capacity will greatly reduce the performance of the equipment, and eventually leads to a machine failure.

Poor diligence in cleaning of parts also leads to erratic behaviour in control and safety systems.

We often come across a service engineers' nightmare - an intermittent fault.

While this may be due to genuine component failure, we see many cases whereby it is just a question of 'bad' contacts on plugs and connectors. Especially in Asia, where these metal contacts tend to oxidize quickly, annual maintenance can reduce the occurance of such faults.

A simple moisture expelling lubricant (such as WD40) will rectify such faults easily and quickly. Instead of spraying the whole plug with expelling lubricant, spray a small amount into the cap of the can, and then use a small clean paintbrush to apply the lubricant to the contacts.

Ensure that equipment is adequately cooled. Make sure that installing cooling and ventilation grills are not blocked. Where filters are fitted, ensure that the filters are replaced or cleaned regularly.

A lot of supplied electronic equipment contains the standard desktop computer style of power supplies. These are very reliable and cost effective power supplies if intended for home/office use.

However, when used in industrial environments, we have to realize the implications. When such a power supply is powering expensive and key components of ride control of a safety system, the possibility of power supply failure must be minimized. You must access the implications of down time due to power failure and take into account the possibility of such a failure causing damage to expensive key components.

Although lubrication is an important part of routine maintenance, using the wrong type of lubricant can also lead to excessive wear and equipment failure. In fact, many modern bearings require no lubricant at all, and applying oil or grease can damage the components.

Again, when in doubt, ask MPM. We can, in conjunction with the equipment manufacturer, offer reliable advice as to the frequency of maintenance and the correct products to use.

Whenever possible, auxiliary and additional equipment should be kept completely separate from the original ride equipment.

On many occasions, after installing and testing, equipment is added after ride commissioning. These are usually sound or lighting systems.

When adding equipment to the original ride equipment, the following issues must be considered carefully

At the end of the day, everybody is eager to go home. But does your installation contain any equipment that needs to 'run' down?

In some cases, and especially with modern projectors, there is a shut down period for such equipment. While the internal equipment is turned off, the cooling fans continue to run for 3 to 5 minutes. By simply cutting the power off, the equipment does not have the chance to cool down.

While this usually does not have any immediate effect, the life of various components can be severly affected.