PROCHECK rebuilds & upgrades

Reduced maintenance and increased machine operational availability

Chemion Logistik GmbH fills plastic granules at the CHEMPARK Krefeld, then packs them on site and loads them onto trucks. This involves the use of various filling machines for form-fill-seal bags and big bags as well as several truck-loaders from the German specialists in packaging, palletizing and loading technology: HAVER & BOECKER OHG. One of the FFS systems was rebuilt and upgraded to state-of-the-art technology in spring 2015. Higher maintenance and repair works on the machine, which is now twelve years old, made the rebuild necessary.

“We were very satisfied with the machine and the performance, but all the necessary spare parts were no longer always available. We had to act to improve machine operational availability” said Gerhard Vieten, Plant Engineer Silo Logistics, at Chemion - explaining the motivation behind the overhaul.

The real challenge was the short time period for preparation and the actual rebuild, which had to be implemented during a shutdown. After an on-site appointment with the HAVER & BOECKER specialists and project scope elaboration, things moved along very quickly: Due to specifications from the silo plant operator Covestro AG, who were more than open to the rebuild, Chemion and HAVER & BOECKER had only three and half months from the official order to the start of the overhaul works.

As required, HAVER & BOECKER carried out the FFS filling line modifications by the time operations resumed. The rebuild time itself in May 2015 was only 2.5 weeks. “That’s a record,” says Rüdiger Reckmann, project manager for all the rebuild measures at HAVER Chemicals Business Unit. He was pleased everything went smoothly.

The focus of the rebuild works at Chemion was on reducing the maintenance intervals and their duration. Six drive motors were rebuilt, thus eliminating the need to replace the brakes, which had been previously required every six months. The sealing stations were also brought up to date so that the welding jaws work more precisely and can be changed more quickly. The duration of maintenance after every four weeks has since been reduced from one hour to just a few minutes. The gripper slides were replaced by lower-maintenance variants. These measures have decisively reduced maintenance work and increased machine operational availability. Moreover, the HAVER experts installed a thin film package. The standard film thickness was previously 100-200 μm. Now with the new package, it is less than 100 μm. The material costs could be significantly reduced as a result. A new opening station with suction cups facilitates the film handling.

After the rebuild, the machine now runs very reliably.

Gerhard Vieten - Plant Engineer Silo Logistics at Chemion

Enthusiasm from Chemion

So convinced of the service performance was Chemion early on that they concluded maintenance contracts with the Oelde-based company for all HAVER & BOECKER machines as early as 2003. Three times a year, service technicians take a close look at the machines on site. In doing so, they develop recommendations for repairs and preventive maintenance measures, thus ensuring greater machine operational availability.