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,
“We have to react quickly to minimise
This customer does present specific
to deliver repairs and source spares.
downtime. For example, the customer
challenges though, as Darryl reiterates:
required a double-sided open length
“One repair job required us to source
Eggs are a staple food for many of us,
timing belt to keep a conveyor operational
which means that there is a high level
specialist foam material that cushions
after a failure of the OE part. The cost
of demand for the produce irrespective
the eggs during grading. The egg comes
of downtime on this machine is around
of season. Consumers will only settle
£3,000 an hour, so lead time was all
through to a sensor, where it taps
for quality produce, so grading facilities
important. In this case the maintenance
assesses each egg that reaches its
team decided to order two parts, one from
processing lines from partnered farms
us and one from the OEM, to maximise
before packaging. By checking for any
their chances of getting the machine back
imperfection with specialist equipment,
up and running the same day.
grading ensures every egg is in optimum condition before it is packaged and
“We were able to deliver the belt in 2
delivered to customers. With millions of
hours, while the OEM took 6 hours. Ours
eggs passing through grading facilities
was installed and the OEM item added
each year, keeping specialised equipment
to spares. All in all, we managed to save
running is especially important in helping
them roughly £12,000 in downtime costs.”
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
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
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
capabilities, Rotamec is able to deliver
into maintenance and repair operations.
standard parts quickly – typically same
By undertaking asset inspections and
day if required. Further, its in-house
identifying ‘showstoppers’ - equipment
machining capabilities mean that bespoke
that risks overall uptime if it fails – the
items such as shafts in various bore sizes
engineers are prioritising maintenance
can be easily produced too. Specialising in
to focus on the most critical assets.
motor repair and refurbishment helps as
Rotamec has also enacted a policy
well, with Rotamec able to offer 24-hour
of ordering spares from relevant
Reducing downtime via responsive
turnarounds on motors and gearboxes.
OEMs during each repair, ensuring
maintenance is very important to this
So, despite different configurations and
facility, as Darryl Beecham, Business
equipment throughout the site, Rotamec
maintenance work is backed by a
Development Executive at Rotamec
can still offer reduced repair and sourcing
explains:
lead times.
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.
24 FDPP - www.fdpp.co.uk
growing spares inventory. www.rotamec.com
