Grading facility puts its
eggs in the Rotamec basket
When shopping at the supermarket or
eating at a restaurant, you want to be
assured that your food has undergone
proper quality checks. These checks can
be quite the challenge for a foodstuff
as delicate as eggs. Grading eggs is a
specialty of grading facilities, which
quality check eggs from nearby prior to
distribution. One such facility operates
a wide array of specialist equipment
on-site and trusts Rotamec, an electromechanical
engineering service provider,
to deliver repairs and source spares.
Eggs are a staple food for many of us,
which means that there is a high level
of demand for the produce irrespective
of season. Consumers will only settle
for quality produce, so grading facilities
assesses each egg that reaches its
processing lines from partnered farms
before packaging. By checking for any
imperfection with specialist equipment,
grading ensures every egg is in optimum
condition before it is packaged and
delivered to customers. With millions of
eggs passing through grading facilities
each year, keeping specialised equipment
running is especially important in helping
shops meet the demand.
However, the more specialised your
equipment, the harder it is to repair or
replace parts in the event of a failure. Lead
times from OEM’s are often unforgiving,
which in the pressurised world of food
supply adds further stress to operators.
For one grading facility, keeping the
machines running and eggs moving
demands the assurance of a dynamic
service provider, which is where Rotamec
- a leading service provider for engineered
equipment - comes in.
Reducing downtime via responsive
maintenance is very important to this
facility, as Darryl Beecham, Business
Development Executive at Rotamec
explains:
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“We have to react quickly to minimise
downtime. For example, the customer
required a double-sided open length
timing belt to keep a conveyor operational
after a failure of the OE part. The cost
of downtime on this machine is around
£3,000 an hour, so lead time was all
important. In this case the maintenance
team decided to order two parts, one from
us and one from the OEM, to maximise
their chances of getting the machine back
up and running the same day.
“We were able to deliver the belt in 2
hours, while the OEM took 6 hours. Ours
was installed and the OEM item added
to spares. All in all, we managed to save
them roughly £12,000 in downtime costs.”
The egg grading facility operates varied
motors and gearboxes, reliable supply
of a wide range of standard parts from
a single supplier is important in keeping
equipment running. Thanks to existing
warehouse stock and in-house distribution
capabilities, Rotamec is able to deliver
standard parts quickly – typically same
day if required. Further, its in-house
machining capabilities mean that bespoke
items such as shafts in various bore sizes
can be easily produced too. Specialising in
motor repair and refurbishment helps as
well, with Rotamec able to offer 24-hour
turnarounds on motors and gearboxes.
So, despite different configurations and
equipment throughout the site, Rotamec
can still offer reduced repair and sourcing
lead times.
This customer does present specific
challenges though, as Darryl reiterates:
“One repair job required us to source
specialist foam material that cushions
the eggs during grading. The egg comes
through to a sensor, where it taps
against the foam, which detects any
hairline cracks as part of the quality
control process. Improper foam will
crack the egg, so only an exact solution
will do. Th grading facility required
replacement foam for the machine, but
the OEM lead time was going to take too
long, so we were approached. It was a
bit different from the mechanical issues
we typically deal with, but we managed
to source the foam within the required
timeframe.”
Both the grading facility and Rotamec
understand that reducing downtime is
one thing, but preventing it is another.
This is why engineers from both
businesses are building redundancy
into maintenance and repair operations.
By undertaking asset inspections and
identifying ‘showstoppers’ - equipment
that risks overall uptime if it fails – the
engineers are prioritising maintenance
to focus on the most critical assets.
Rotamec has also enacted a policy
of ordering spares from relevant
OEMs during each repair, ensuring
maintenance work is backed by a
growing spares inventory.
www.rotamec.com