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Center for Metallica Materials and Technology, Institute Kemal Kapetanović Zenica, University of Zenica , Zenica , Bosnia and Herzegovina
This paper presents some aspects of the correlation between maintenance cost reduction and accidents—specifically, damages due to plastic deformation in steel constructions at production companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the theoretical part, a tension testing diagram for typical structural steels (I, U, T, etc.) is used to explain the nature of failures in the discussed support constructions. The practical part includes a series of photographs taken during forensic examinations following accidents, providing evidence of prior plastic deformation. This section is complemented by data on corresponding maintenance costs. It is emphasized that using loads above 60% of the yield stress, even if within the elastic range, is a dangerous practice for steel constructions in Bosnian manufacturing companies, let alone exceeding the yield point into the plastic deformation range. The most common causes for this practice, i.e., 'overloading' that results in plastic deformation or structural accidents, include poor quality of planned-preventive maintenance and a policy of reducing maintenance costs. These accidents often lead to injuries among workers, partial or complete destruction of structural components, or the decommissioning of entire facilities, thereby causing technological delays and triggering enormous costs due to lost production. These total costs are further increased due to the necessity to remedy the state of equipment and/or production technology
Equpment maintenance, maintenance costs, construction components, failure, breakdown, plastic deformation
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