Rustduur

Rustduur is a term used in Dutch industrial engineering and operations management to denote the planned duration of a rest interval between consecutive production cycles or machine operations. The concept is applied to manage thermal relief, energy use, wear, and worker safety by ensuring sufficient cooling and recovery time. In practice, rustduur is defined as the minimum interval required for a system to return to a safe operating state after a cycle, plus any organizational buffers.

Etymology: the word is a compound of rust (rest) and duur (duration). It is primarily found in Dutch-language manuals and guidelines related to manufacturing, automation, and facility management.

Applications: rustduur is used in automated production lines, machining centers, and robotic cells to reduce overheating, extend component life, and comply with safety standards. It can be integrated into control logic as a mandatory pause between jobs, or scheduled in maintenance plans and energy optimization programs.

Measurement and calculation: determining rustduur involves assessing heat generation, cooling rates, ambient temperature, and allowable operating temperatures. It is typically expressed in seconds or minutes and validated by sensor data (temperatures, vibration) and performance tolerance. In some contexts, rustduur overlaps with concepts such as dwell time, cooldown periods, or idle time.

Limitations: there is no universal standard for rustduur, and definitions vary across industries and organizations. It may be used informally in Dutch-language texts, but is less common in international standards.

See also: dwell time, cooldown period, idle time.