MACHINERY BREAKDOWN CLAIM: WHAT TO DO The first 72 hours, from Claims Desk by RFS Machinery breakdown claims are decided by the damaged part, and the damaged part usually leaves the building before anyone thinks to stop it. WHAT LOSES IT Dismantling before the survey. Once the machine is opened, stripped or sent to a workshop, nobody can any longer prove what failed or why -- and cause is the entire argument in this class. 1. Stop the machine and leave it alone [Immediately] Do not dismantle it, do not let the service engineer open it, and do not send anything to a workshop. The failed component in its failed state is the claim. 2. Tell the insurer before you call the repairer [Before repairs] In this class the order matters more than in any other. A repairer who arrives first will have the machine in pieces before the surveyor sees it, in good faith, trying to help. 3. Photograph the machine in situ [Day 1] The nameplate and serial number, the installation, the control panel, the readings on any gauge or display, and the fault indication. Then the damaged area once it is safe to look. 4. Pull the maintenance history [Days 1 to 3] Service records, the last preventive maintenance, the log book, breakdown history, and any AMC. Insurers examine wear and tear and lack of maintenance closely here, and a complete record answers that before it is raised. 5. Capture what was happening when it failed [Day 1] Operating parameters, load, shift, the operator's account, any power event or voltage fluctuation, and the SCADA or PLC log if you have one. Cause is the argument, so the evidence of cause is the file. 6. Get the manufacturer's or repairer's failure report [After survey] In writing, saying what failed and why -- but arranged with the insurer, and ideally after the surveyor has been. A repairer's invoice is not a failure report. 7. Preserve the failed part after repair [Until settled] Even once the machine is back in production. The insurer may want it examined, and a discarded component is often the end of the claim. 8. Record the downtime as it happens [From day 1] If you carry machinery loss of profit, the lost output starts accruing from the hour it stopped. Log shifts lost, orders delayed and hired-in substitution from day one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Claims Desk by RFS - claimsdesk.in - 92514 56334 We run insurance claims end to end, including on policies placed elsewhere. Nothing here is legal advice, and what your policy pays is decided by its wording and the facts of the loss. Where this says 'the time your policy sets', read your own wording: the periods genuinely differ and a wrong one costs the claim.