Food processing efficiency with lubricants

12 months ago a call for help was received from a major blue chip food processing company with the task of reducing costs without compromising efficiencies.

12 months ago a call for help was received from a major blue chip food processing company with the task of reducing costs without compromising efficiencies.

The agenda put to Kluber was as follows: The need to reduce costs from a purchase view point and apply economies of volume across all group locations.

A partner with technical expertise to bring cost and application reductions to the group was required.

The Rotary cooker oil was identified as a key initial item to review.

Cost of the current rotary cooker lubricant was at GBP96k per annum for all rotaries at one site.

This was considered too high.

Had high spares parts cost in particular the brass wear strips at GBP100.00 ea.

Number of strips used per annum was 257 x GBP100 = GBP25700.00 This too was considered too high.

With 12 cookers operating at an average of 75% duty this equates to a total spares spend on strips of GBP230k and GBP96k per annum on lubricants.

Kluber engineers identified key KPI"s for plan and evaluation.

The Rotary Cooker OEM recommended product KLUBEROIL 4 UH1 460N was put forward as our alternative to that in current use.

The discharge valves were reset to allow a lower lubricant consumption without compromising the wear surfaces.

It was agreed that Kluber would monitor the effect of the oil film on wear strips over a 12 month period and report the results to Engineering teams and purchase departments After running for 12 months the following figures have been quantified and qualified.

VOLUME ANALYSIS= Previous lubricant 75 barrels x 200 ltr per annum = GBP96k Kluber 43 barrels X 200 ltr per annum = GBP55k SAVING = GBP41k WEAR STRIPS Previous lubricant = 257 strips pa = GBP25700.00 Kluber oil = 57 strips pa= GBP5700.00 Saving on spares = GBP20K If the duty cycle is factored in the saving will be in the region of GBP162k for all 12 cookers.

Direct saving of GBP203k off of the maintenance budget 2006.

All achieved by nothing more than correct lubrication by what has always been perceived in industry to be an expensive lubricant.

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