RS Components (RS), the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc (LSE:ECM), the global distributor for engineers, has announced a range of plant maintenance products and solutions designed to help companies with planned- and emergency-maintenance requirements at manufacturing or processing facilities to cost-effectively equip themselves to maintain operations and extend system life for as long as economically viable.
Key product areas for plant maintenance include tools, consumables, chemicals, cables and cable management, test and measurement, HVAC systems, lighting and a range of automation and control products including sensors and machine guarding.
One important area is enabling engineers to find and deal with electrical problems safely and quickly in hard to reach places inside panels, cabinets or equipment. Key product solutions include wireless inspection and thermal-imaging cameras, such as the FLIR CM174 all-in-one clamp meter with built-in thermal imager, power measurement tools from Fluke, lamps from Osram, RS Pro safety lockouts, tools for working at height from Facom, and other electrical devices including cables and sockets.
It is essential that production-line systems be continuously maintained, as having an early indication of when a unit is operating outside of normal parameters can help avoid equipment failure and reduce downtime. RS offers solutions designed for production line maintenance, covering areas such as process control using sensors, relays and beacons, plus a large range of products for predictive maintenance. Important for predicting failure is the integration of sensors into existing systems or equipment, such as the SKF CMSS 200 vibration sensor, which can be placed on machinery to measure vibration above a pre-set limit and trigger an alarm condition.
RS also provides information on a range of essential workshop products, such as adhesives, tapes, tools, personal protection equipment and labels. For the general identification of items such as bins, beams, and drawers, a standard industrial-strength label can be used, but other applications require more specific types of labels. The DYMO XTL range of labelling products is an example system that makes it easy to create customised labels simply and quickly. Finally, RS also offers a large range of key RS Pro products targeting plant maintenance applications including heavy-duty cabinets and tool modules, lead-acid batteries, LED lamps, extension reels, cable ties and fastener kits.
