How To Prevent Food Processing Equipment Breakdowns

October 16, 2017 -

• Equipment Maintenance
• Food Processing
• Quality Control

Stainless steel tanks. Centrifugal pumps. Filling and packaging machines. Heat exchangers. What do these types of food processing equipment have in common? They’re all susceptible to normal wear and tear. Some wear is cosmetic and doesn’t affect performance or the integrity of your product. Other wear, however, can be an early warning sign of equipment failure. In this post, we’ll share our easiest maintenance tips for preventing food processing equipment breakdowns and reducing costly downtime.

Routine Maintenance Beats Routine Equipment Failure

Keeping up with the regular maintenance of your food processing equipment takes time out of your day. No doubt about it. And, while you may be able to skip a few spot-checks here and there, eventually it could catch up with you. So, the simplest, easiest thing you can do to help prevent equipment breakdown is to follow the manufacturer’s recommended preventative maintenance schedule. Often, that means regularly inspecting and lubricating parts, swapping worn components with new ones and keeping a detailed equipment maintenance log of what was done and when.

Don’t Spare the Spare Parts

Most of the food processing equipment in your production line contains a variety of wearable parts with a finite useful lifespan. If you’re keeping up with your maintenance log, you ought to be able to replace those wearable parts before they give up the ghost, and potentially bring production to a halt. That’s why it can really pay off to have a variety of replacement parts on hand and ready to go if needed.

Operate with Care

Before you turn the new guy (or gal) loose on your production line, make sure you’ve done your part to explain how to properly operate the equipment. Even if an employee has worked with a particular piece of food processing equipment in a different production line, your system is probably different and may not work exactly as expected. You should also be wary of complacency. Over time, people tend to forget what they’re supposed to do or they may start to take shortcuts that could have unintended consequences down the road. So, if you want to prevent equipment breakdowns, don’t forget about the “human element.”

Don’t Let Food Processing Equipment Failure Eat into Your Revenue

Even if you follow these suggestions, preventing breakdowns entirely is impossible. And, some equipment failures may be too much for you to handle on your own. This isn’t cause for alarm; it’s cause for a backup plan. At Zwirner Equipment Company, we offer emergency maintenance services at our facility in Hartsville, Tennessee as well as on-site repair at your facility. That’s right, our technicians will come to you and help you get your food processing equipment up and running as quickly as we can. We also offer other customizable services and products that are specific for the food processing industry. Whether you’re dealing with a leaky stainless steel tank, need a hard-to-find replacement part or you’ve got any number of miscellaneous equipment maintenance requests, our team is here to help. In fact, we don’t even mind if your equipment came from somewhere else. Fill out a form below or call us during business hours to speak with a friendly representative.

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