Ensuring process safety and plant availability in the long term

An individually tailored service concept can largely prevent unplanned downtimes and maintain process reliability and economic efficiency of the cleaning system at a consistently high level. (Photo: Dürr Ecoclean)

Customer-specific maintenance intervals enable "controlled production downtime" with reduced equipment downtime and without uncontrollable costs. (Photo: Dürr Ecoclean)

Cleaning systems are not uncommon as the "bottleneck" in production. Any unplanned downtime caused by reactive maintenance or a disturbance usually results in enormous additional effort, and in the worst case, a production halt for subsequent processes. Therefore, cleaning must run predictably and ensure the required cleaning result reproducibly. A significant contribution to this is made by an individually tailored service strategy aligned with the company's requirements. Dürr Ecoclean has developed a product portfolio that can be assembled according to needs.

High process safety and plant availability are the be-all and end-all of efficient and customer-oriented production. Therefore, companies typically invest in tailored service concepts for manufacturing systems such as machining centers for cutting, stamping and bending machines, or casting systems. Not so when it comes to cleaning technology. Here, many manufacturing companies' strategy after the manufacturer's warranty expires often still consists of reactive maintenance: The cleaning system is only serviced or repaired when its functionality has deteriorated to the point where cleaning problems occur or parts are defective due to inevitable wear (e.g., aging, wear). "Unplanned plant downtime resulting from this usually incurs high costs as well as often causing production and delivery delays," report Udo Steinhauser, Director Service Cleaning Industrial, and Peter Lamberty, Director Cleaning Automotive at Dürr Ecoclean GmbH.

"Controlled production downtime" through an individual service concept

To avoid unplanned downtimes as much as possible and to continuously keep process safety and the economic efficiency of the cleaning system at an optimal level, the plant manufacturer has developed a product portfolio for individually tailored service concepts. This ranges from a call-back service with defined callback times to training, revision, or modification of the system. "Relying solely on traditional maintenance contracts in service, which we naturally offer, no longer necessarily provides companies with the desired benefit today. Because the requirements of individual plant operators vary greatly. For example, it depends on whether there is an in-house maintenance department and how extensive it is. For some customers, we only check measures carried out by their own staff during an inspection. For others, we perform maintenance work regularly according to a fixed plan," explains Udo Steinhauser. To simplify maintenance and servicing, Dürr Ecoclean's systems are equipped with a module through which the plant operator can set and plan maintenance intervals individually. This enables a "controlled production downtime" with reduced plant downtime and without uncontrollable costs.

Quick remote assistance

Between 40 and 60 percent of problems that occur can be quickly and cost-effectively resolved through a phone call with the helpdesk or via remote maintenance, based on the experience of the service organization. An important contribution to this is also the recording of data from critical components in the plant control system and their display on the control panel. "The system sometimes already indicates what needs to be done. For example, it shows the required maintenance of a pump or replacement parts with a service number," describes Udo Steinhauser.

The prerequisite for quick remote problem resolution, however, is that the necessary spare parts are available at the plant operator's site. For this purpose, product-specific and customer-tailored spare parts packages are available for standard and special systems.

Training – also relevant for the service concept

Employee qualification is an indispensable component to reliably achieve the high cleanliness standards required today. This also includes knowledge of how the system works and which processes take place. "An employee can only recognize that something is wrong if he knows exactly how the cleaning system functions," justifies Peter Lamberty the training needs from a service perspective. "This knowledge helps our customers achieve high system availability," adds Udo Steinhauser.

System modification for changing requirements

As the requirements for component cleanliness increase or changes occur in the range of products to be cleaned, the demands on the cleaning system often change over the course of its operational life. The question then is whether it is worthwhile to modify the existing system or if investing in a new cleaning system is necessary. Dürr Ecoclean's service offering also covers this area.

For decision-making, the production chain is examined on one hand. "Quite often, some optimization can already be achieved here, for example, by reducing dirt ingress or adjusting the parameters of the cleaning program," explains Peter Lamberty. On the other hand, cleaning tests are conducted in Dürr Ecoclean's technical center. Both the existing and the optimized process are simulated as closely as possible, and the results are compared. "We perform cleanliness analyses for particulate or film residual contamination," explains Peter Lamberty. This enables a well-founded statement on whether the required cleaning quality can be achieved through system modification. At the same time, the necessary financial effort can also be precisely predicted.

A long-term service strategy not only ensures high system availability, economic efficiency, and improved cost transparency. Since fewer unplanned production downtimes occur and cleaning results are achieved with consistently high quality, it also contributes to higher satisfaction among plant operators and their customers.