Designing for Maintainability in Sheet Metal Fabrication
At Baillie Fabricating & Welding, we’re confident in our capabilities and proud to manufacture products that are strong and reliable. But durability isn’t everything if a product hasn’t been designed for maintainability in its actual application.
Maintainability (sometimes called serviceability) is how easily a product can be accessed, cleaned, maintained, and repaired. And with products built to last, poor maintainability will lead to problems potentially for years.
Learn how we can help you achieve ease of maintenance with design guidance and expert fabrication.
Case Study in Maintainability: Building Access into a Design
If serviceability is overlooked, the costs show up in various ways: service will require extra time and labor, which leads to higher costs, longer maintenance cycles, increased downtime, and more. It’s important to understand that a design can look perfect on a screen and well-suited to its application, but it might still be a headache in practice because of maintenance difficulty.
One recent product development and fabrication project illustrates this point: a customer needed a heavy-duty frame to support a large generator, designed for frequent use and mounted on wheels for portability. The customer came to us focused on structural challenges, but we quickly noted that certain controls needed to be accounted for in the design to remain accessible.
We discussed servicing processes with the customer and made simple but high-impact decisions to keep maintenance simple, from door swing and clearance to bracket positioning. As a result, the frame had the strength and mobility necessary, without undermining service access.
Principles of Maintainability in Action
At Baillie Fabricating & Welding, we’ve partnered with a wide range of industries, and here are some of the most important factors we cover in design discussions:
Designing for simple access
If a mechanic or technician will need to reach it, then you should always plan for just how they’ll be able to do it. If, for instance, your design means that servicing a component requires a technician to remove several others, that may lead to significant extra labor costs over the full lifetime of the product.
Preparing for washdown and moisture
Many of our customers operate in environments with frequent cleaning or power washing, such as the food packaging industry. If water is prevalent, every detail matters: we ensure every area is sealed, add slopes to surfaces to encourage runoff, and select the right materials for corrosion resistance.
Eliminating traps for contamination
Tight corners or hard-to-reach geometry can collect residue and bacteria. In applications that require frequent sanitization, we implement rounded surfaces and radiused internal features to make cleaning simpler.
Finishing to your needs
In pharmaceutical applications, some customers require mirror finishes if drugs in liquid or powder form will come into contact with the material. Mirror finishes can be labor intensive, but our long history of meeting pharmaceutical standards demonstrates the quality of our metal finishing services.
Simplifying Your Long-Term Maintenance
In our design and product development projects, we always offer insight into designing for maintainability, and we pair that with the capability to execute. Our accurate metal fabrication, consistent welding services, and finishing support ensure your requirements are met. We focus on the details that keep your product usable for years.
What Are Your Maintenance Needs?
If you’re starting a new project or trying to improve your design, we’re ready to discuss serviceability with you. A short conversation up front can prevent costly redesigns or even potentially years of added labor and downtime.
Request a quote today from our Pennsylvania metal fabrication shop!
