In a study conducted by the Technical University of Munich, the habits of farmers and contractors when carrying out maintenance work on cultivation machinery on farms were investigated. The maintenance requirements and the selected maintenance strategy were examined in selected test farms. It was shown that necessary maintenance work such as greasing PTO shafts is often not carried out correctly. In practice, machine parts are lubricated almost daily, while other machine parts are not lubricated at all. Often, information on the correct amount of grease, the lubrication interval or the number of grease nipples is not available in a suitable form. As a result, the lubrication intervals recommended by the manufacturer for the machine components are not adhered to. If maintenance work is omitted, increased wear of the bearing areas is the result, and the service life of the PTO shaft is shortened. If lubrication is done too often or with too much grease, valuable time and lubricants are wasted. The study calculated that by adhering to the correct lubrication intervals and timing as part of an optimized maintenance strategy, up to 94% of maintenance costs and up to 82% of time spent on maintenance can be reduced compared to incorrect daily maintenance or no maintenance at all, depending on the attachment and the machine’s service life.

The Walterscheid Connected Service Assistant makes all the information required for the operation and maintenance of the PTO shafts available on the smartphone at all times, thus saving time and money in the maintenance of agricultural machinery!