Pet Food Processing - March 2023 - 56

EQUIPMENT
ing and that knowledge is not being passed down to the
younger employees.
" The whole concept is to bring us in on a preventive
maintenance agreement, which gets us in periodically to
do what we want customers to do, which is the 2,000hour
service, " he said. " We push our customers so they
can get the lifespan they expect. We catch things before
they fail and save the customers money. "
NorthWind provides maintenance management solutions
as part of its overall suite of controls and automation
offerings.
" We implement maintenance tools and software packages
to organize your maintenance team, utilizing historical
and real time data to detect potential breakdowns
before they cause downtime, " Otto said.
FactoryEye offers a modern solution that can fill the
gaps that exist in legacy systems, based on the XPI integration
platform by Magic Software, so it can easily connect
to other systems in the plant and even to the sensors
and machine controllers themselves.
" Because of this, it can track what is happening at
the machine to provide condition-based alerts when
maintenance needs to be performed, " Ghio said. " It can
integrate with the MMS and to the machine, so it will
know when scheduled tasks need to be performed and
can make that highly visible within each user's workflow
who needs that information. Visual controls can
be implemented at the machine to display autonomous
maintenance task lists for the day and instructions when
they are required. "
Wenger provides service visits for preventive mainWenger
provides
preventive
maintenance
service visits for its
extruders to help
customers solve
potential problems
before they occur.
Wenger
Tech evolution
Otto noted preventive maintenance technology has improved
a great deal over the last five years. Just how far
a processor takes its preventive maintenance program is
up to each individual company.
" Computerized maintenance management
systems
track schedules and send notifications for equipment
maintenance, " he said. " Calculated equipment life expectancy
and predictions for required maintenance can be
calculated based on historical data. These software packages
also help automate most of the administrative work. "
Beyond PC software packages, vibration, temperature,
pressure, and other analog sensors are often used to detect
worn equipment. This data, if used correctly, can detect
an issue before the breakdown occurs.
What's available?
Kelly J. Tebon, aftermarket business unit manager for
Handtmann Inc., Lake Forest, Ill., shared that the company
has been pushing preventive maintenance in recent
years because several industry experts, who have hordes
of knowledge on how to fix the equipment, are retir56
PET FOOD PROCESSING | March 2023 | www.petfoodprocessing.net
tenance on the extrusion line and also has its Wenger
Care program for extruders and dryers, which includes
options such as evaluation and process optimization, in
addition to preventive care.
It is akin to regular oil
changes for your car or driving
until the engine seizes up. "
Terri Ghio, FactoryEye North America
During the preventive maintenance, the Wenger team
performs a quick inspection of the other devices that are
around the extruder such as the downspout, live bin,
feeder, agitator, level sensors, temperature sensors, BPV,
head jacket and valves. The team also checks the steam
and water injectors (eliminating possible obstructions),
tests the devices starts, verifies that everything is working
correctly, and, at the same time, collects information
from the process team. The idea is to map and prepare
for any eventual need that may arise.
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