Lower heat exchanger operating costs with preventive maintenance
Heat exchangers are built to last – typically for up to 20 years. But wear and tear is natural during such a long lifecycle. Preventive maintenance that fixes problems before they arise will save you money in the long run.
Gaskets and other working parts inside a heat exchanger need to be replaced from time to time. Metal fatigue and corrosion caused by product contact, thermal stress or heating media can also occur.
Regular preventive maintenance enables processing equipment to sustain high performance over long periods of time. If detected early, wear and tear can be addressed and replacement parts installed with minimum fuss.
Planned maintenance is similar to looking after your car, says Bert-Ove Bejevik, Business Development and Marketing Director at Tetra Pak Processing Components.
“When you take your car in for service, you’re aware that some parts which are still working will be replaced,” he says. As we all know, it is not a good idea to run your car until it breaks. It’s the same for heat exchangers.”
Avoid unplanned downtime
As any car owner can testify, repairs are more expensive than planned maintenance. First, unforeseen problems lead to unscheduled downtime that costs time and money. Second, spare parts and service work invariably cost more when needed for repairs due to overtime and extra freight charges.
“When you rely on corrective maintenance, the cost of fixing the problem is much higher. The service work will include overtime because the work is unplanned, and you can bet that the breakdown occurs on a Saturday morning. You will also need express delivery and incur extra freight costs,” Bejevik says.
There are three main methods of preventive maintenance.
» Predetermined maintenance is performed according to recommendations in task lists and is based on the supplier’s experience from its installed base.
» Secured and optimized maintenance uses computer software to monitor maintenance activities and runtime status. By allowing proactive modification of service intervals, it enhances production availability and reduces overall maintenance costs.
» Condition monitoring tracks critical equipment conditions to provide early warning of major machine faults, so as to avoid unplanned stops and optimize maintenance intervals. In condition monitoring, maintenance data is logged manually or automatically and can be monitored on-site or remotely.
Ask your heat exchanger supplier about preventive maintenance options and guarantee yourself a route to lower running costs, enhanced plant reliability, and stable product quality and safety over time.
Find out more about preventive maintenance
Want to know more about how preventive maintenance can benefit your operations? Download Preventive maintenance for processing equipment data sheet.
Heat exchangers for consistent high quality results
Regardless of whether you're producing meatballs in sauce, jam with strawberries, chocolate pudding or plain white milk, the process involves heat treatment, and this usually means using heat exchangers. Your choice of heat exchanger depends on the attributes of the product in question, such as its viscosity and particle size. More complex and demanding products - with particles and higher or variable viscosity - require heat exchangers with a more complex tube design to promote the correct product flow.
