Ride maintenance is undergoing constant evolutions. Here we help you identify your current maintenance level and see how far you can go.

 

THE 5 LEVELS OF RIDE MAINTENANCE
by Enrico Fabbri

 

Rides are sometimes very complex machines. Although they may have been well-designed and built using quality materials, faults can still occur. And of course this happens when they are being used, i.e. at the worst possible time.

This problem not only involves rides, but all machinery. Over the years, the industry has identified strategies to prevent major economic losses. The concepts that we will explain here are therefore common to large companies and provide interesting insights into their applicability for amusement ride operators.

To simplify the explanation, we have divided maintenance into 5 levels, from the lowest to the most complex.

Repair. This represents the basic level, in which a component is repaired or replaced when it fails. In this case, the spare parts need to be available to repair the fault. Otherwise, it will take days to get the component needed to complete the repair. Not having identified which components may fail and not having them available in stock would in fact represent level ZERO, i.e. off the scale.

Replace. In this case, it is assumed that some data are available: for example, we know that that a certain component fails every 2/3 years. Therefore, even without any additional objective data, it should be replaced in order to guarantee that a possible breakage does not mean a machine stoppage. In this case, there is no research into the causes of the failure, all that is known is that the piece needs to be replaced from time to time.

Preventive Maintenance. This level represents the first concrete step towards prevention. It involves planning ride inspections, seeing and analysing the conditions of the ride. When a component begins to show signs of fatigue, it is replaced. In this stage it is also possible to identify the causes of a possible failure and to find suitable solutions to reduce or eliminate that type of fault. Periodic inspections should be managed using specific checklists, which are constantly updated according to the depth of knowledge of the ride.
Predictive Maintenance. Now imagine having a set of data available on a specific ride: these for example reveal what components have been replaced over the years and detail how many hours the ride operated before any kind of failure. With this information, a schedule can be established and that particular component can be replaced before it breaks. In other words, we gain control over the machinery. Further steps are also possible. For example, sensors can be fitted on the ride’s gearbox to monitor oil temperature and level: if the level drops below a certain limit, it means that there is a leak in the gearbox, while if the oil heats up too much, it means that probably some of the gearing is under stress or overly worn. Installing several sensors to monitor a ride and its components makes more information available to improve predictive maintenance.

Total Preventive Maintenance. This is the highest level of fault prevention. In this case, the operators of a specific machine are involved in maintenance activities (those mentioned above): they themselves are responsible for periodic inspections and reporting any problems to the maintenance team. Their observations will then be analysed to update the predictive maintenance plan.
Having examined all this, some questions can now be raised. What level do the ride operators correspond to? How important is it to organise preventive maintenance?

Before answering, there must be a premise, that is that rides are clearly no ordinary equipment: they carry people, and therefore it must be considered that failure of an important component could lead to a death. This is why all maintenance activities are essential. It is just as essential to update the ride according to the latest standards and new safety concepts, applying updated risk analysis.
Large amusement parks are generally very well organised, they have specialist maintenance teams led by engineers with considerable experience. Often the technical staff at large parks are better prepared and more specialised than the engineers who actually build the attractions. Indeed, an amusement park cannot afford to have a ride standing still, let alone an accident with injuries; this would damage its reputation, with enormous economic implications.

This premise serves to say that all operators should always remember that the effects of a breakdown can have major consequences, especially in our sector. Thinking about this statement for a moment, it becomes clear how much less expensive it is to prevent failures before they happen. So, to get back to the question I asked earlier, the answer is that it is incredibly important to organise good preventive maintenance, even when operating a small ride.

I know many operators in Europe, and almost all of them perform weekly inspections on their rides, many times visual inspections. Very often the owner carries out the checks first hand, and this means that he/she is very aware of the importance of this activity.

So what’s missing? The traceability of what is done, i.e. maintenance activities are not recorded, and this is probably the biggest mistake that almost all operators make. If not obliged by local laws, no one actually keeps track of the what components are purchased, the date they were purchased and above all how many hours (or how many cycles) the ride worked between one failure and the next. Ride manufacturers calculate the strength of the structure in terms of number of cycles, but do not install a cycle counter on the ride.

Recording maintenance and noting down the number of cycles that a failure occurred at or when maintenance was performed is essential. Imagine, for example, that a ride is sold to another operator; how can the new operator carry out preventive maintenance without the information recorded by the previous operator? How can a manufacturer improve the product, solving the causes of some problems, without having any traceability of what happened?

And if an accident occurs to a passenger, how can the operator demonstrate that they carried out maintenance to the best of their ability?

We all know how few accidents there are on rides when compared to the number of people who use them every year. We can therefore conclude that many rides are safe and kept in good working order by operators. Yet based on what I have written here, I believe that we can improve even more, and I am especially referring to the new generations of operators (those who grew up with PCs and mobile phones). Young people should learn as much as possible from the experience of their parents, and then develop the further steps needed to aim for total prevention.

 

 

 

Written by Mr. Enrico Fabbri enrico@fabbrirides.com
Article originally published in Games Industry (Italy) magazine
Original date: March 2018

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