Maintenance and Care of Shoe Machinery

Machinery holds the central position in formal shoemakers because it helps to maintain efficiency and produce high quality. Nevertheless, as with any other industrial equipment, shoe machinery tends to wear out – if maintained improperly, the machine’s performance will greatly decline. To maximize the life of these machines and reduce repair costs as well as loss of production due to machine breakdowns, it is important to maintain these machines properly. BSM India is here to talk about shoe manufacturing and its focuses.

Key Maintenance Practices for Shoe Machinery

Shoe machinery maintenance includes periodic checks on the condition of all its components as well as cleaning the parts, using lubricants, and replacing worn-out parts as often as necessary. Here’s a breakdown of the best practices for maintaining shoe manufacturing equipment:

Regular Inspections

Scheduling an inspection is important in seeing that it will help in recognizing possible risks. These inspections should cover:

  • Alignment: See how all the cutting tools, stitching heads, and other components that move have adjusted themselves. This results in inefficiency and damage to machines due to misalignment.
  • Component Wear: Look for belt and gear wear, bearing looseness, and other signs of rapid component movement. If you notice them, then replace them to avoid the formation of bigger problems.
  • Electrical Systems: Check wiring, switch, and connection points and observe for messages of rotten or exposed wires, excessively hot junctions, or short circuits.

In the case of heavy usage of the machine, the inspection should be done every week, while moderate usage should be done every month. Any of them should be treated as soon as possible to avoid any additional harm being done.

Cleaning and Dust Management

Delamination of shoes originates from materials including leather, fabric, glue, and rubber all of which create dust and residues. These can pile up inside the machines, leading to blockages or even an explosion that leads to fire. Regular cleaning is, therefore, critical:

  • Daily Cleaning: Machines should be cleaned every evening to remove dust and glue residues, or other material particles on them.
  • Compressed Air: For those small corners that are difficult to reach with a cloth, use the compressed air to blow. This helps to prevent blockages on the machines that are used in the operations.
  • Vacuuming: Industries should use industrial vacuum systems to clean such areas around machines in order to minimize dust accumulation in the working spaces.

Lubrication

Lubrication plays the function of minimizing the contact surface friction and increasing the durability of parts by eliminating heat generation. Here’s how to ensure proper lubrication:

Regular Application: Grease all revolvable parts as instructed by the manufacturer. This is duly composed of belts, gears, bearings, and chains among others.

  • Use the Correct Lubricant: This means you have to be very careful when lubricating to make sure you are not damaging the machines, always using the right type of lubricant for each machine. Inadequate or excessive lubrication can serve as a root of more problems than being useful.
  • Monitor Lubrication Levels: Check all the automatically lubricated parts and ensure that they are properly oiled. Whereas for the other parts, you should apply manual lubrication.

Part Replacements

Some parts of the shoe machinery, including cutting blades, sewing needles, belts, and the like, are used constantly and therefore become worn out often and need replacement. Failure to effect replacements can result in machines either working sub-optimally or completely seizing up.

  • Blades: Blunt blades are not very effective in cutting putting a lot of strain on the machine. Change them as soon as they appear to be worn out.
  • Needles: Check stitching needles for dullness or bending and replace the needles so that good stitching is accomplished in the process.
  • Belts: Wear and tear should be checked on belts as well as slippage and replacement should done as early as possible.

Calibration and Testing

Calibration is needed to have the assurance that all the machines in production are creating shoes with the exact parameters needed. This is particularly true on cutting and stitching machines as the precision is of tremendous importance.

  • Periodic Calibration: Carry out regular checks on the machines to fix any deviations from the right sizes that might have occurred during cutting, stitching, and forming.
  • Test Runs: Often, after fixing or repairing some parts of it, operate a trial run so that one may be very sure that the machine is working properly and is producing the right quality of products.

Conclusion

Shoe machinery is not just to get more lifespan out of the many pairs of shoes produced every day, but also to reduce the high cost incurred through frequent breakdowns and delays in production, and to consistently produce quality shoes that will meet the current market standard. Manufacturers of shoes should ensure that the machines used in the production are checked frequently, cleaned, lubricated, and parts are replaced at the correct time to avoid frequent breakdowns. Furthermore, investment in operator training helps avoid the machines being used incorrectly. To get yours today, visit BSM India!