Maintenance | machinery
Few compounders today can afford to sacrifice plant efficiency or uptime. Peter Mapleston learns about some new tools designed to help maintain compounding equipment and passes on some practical maintenance tips
Compounding extruders:
maintaining a competitive edge
Compounding extruders do not fit into the category of “fit and forget.” They are complicated pieces of equipment that run day-in day-out, often processing materials that are mechanically and possibly chemically aggressive. Even something as apparently benign as the water in the cooling channels can present a hidden threat to their well-being. So, if you want them to last, they require some solid care and attention. We have been scouting around for some top maintenance tips and news of the latest hardware and software develop- ments to keep compounding lines in order. The arrival of extrusion lines with higher power densities and outputs goes hand-in-hand with the development of more comprehensive and detailed service features, says Jürgen Sauer, Head of the Service Branch at Leistritz Extrusionstechnik. “While in the past, compounders had their own staff to take on service tasks after the plant had been commissioned, today the world looks different, mostly due to high cost pressure,” he says. Compounding companies now frequently have to
implement lean management and production, Sauer adds. “Having an [in-house] service team oftentimes is no longer viable.” The result is that servicing extrusion
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lines has become more and more the extruder manu- facturer’s task, and this situation has strongly influ- enced Leistritz’s service package. “The range of our services has continuously been
growing. In addition to the classical commissioning, installation supervision, and maintenance services, we have increased our scope of supply with new features during the past few years. Our aim is not only to react, but to act,” Sauer says. The number of preventive maintenance machine check-ups executed by Leistritz has increased by 60% since 2014. “During the check-up our technicians sometimes clearly realise the desolate condition of the plants that haven’t been taken care of properly. Our customers have quickly learned that this kind of investment, which is modest compared to an actual machine standstill, really pays off,” he says.
The “smart” approach “The time has come for us to intensively interconnect with the customers as well as the machines and plants,” Sauer explains. Besides remote servicing, with the service technician connecting to the customer’s control unit via a safe VPN channel, Leistritz has also
April 2017 | COMPOUNDING WORLD 17
Main image: Remote and “smart”
service tools can help
compounders improve their maintenance capabilities
PHOTO: LEISTRITZ EXTRUSIONSTECHNIK
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