In this era of tight deadlines and market pressure, your manufacturing process is only as good as the equipment that runs it. Your packaging department is the heart of your operations, whether you’re growing a small food brand or running a global pharmaceutical facility. The process of purchasing equipment doesn’t happen once; it is a shared partnership, and doing this in the right way is why selecting the appropriate commercial packing equipment suppliers will probably be the most important decision you make as a facilities manager this year.
Preventive maintenance is critical not only to avoid having to endure a breakdown that could be costly but also because it is a systematic method of caring for your equipment that helps to spot signs of wear before they become serious.
The best preventative maintenance tips for helping to maintain your packaging machine include performing regular check-ups on your packaging machine, regular lubrication on your packaging machine, scheduling the replacement of worn-out parts on your packaging machine, and educating your operators through hands-on training on your packaging machine to give them the knowledge they need to keep it running properly.
By consistently addressing potential issues when they are noticed, you’ll be able to minimize surprises in your plant and produce a predictable and higher dollar volume of product.
Contents
- 1 Create a Regularly Scheduled Routine of Inspections
- 2 Maintain Machines Free of Dirt and Residue
- 3 Keep All Moving Parts on a Regular Lubrication Schedule
- 4 Replace Worn Parts Before They Break
- 5 Training should include the following:
- 6 Monitor Machine Performance Metrics
- 7 Regular Professional Services
- 8 Record All Maintenance
- 9 Preserve the Quality of the Power Supply and the Environmental Conditions
- 10 When buying spare parts or accessories, make sure they are genuine.
- 11 Selecting the Best Commercial Packing Equipment Suppliers
Create a Regularly Scheduled Routine of Inspections
One of the best preventative maintenance tips for your packaging machine is to create and commit to a regularly scheduled routine of inspections. When working with quality commercial packing equipment suppliers, they will often have a maintenance schedule created specifically for your model of equipment. This includes checking important areas of your machine on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.
Key areas to inspect include:
Sealing belts and heating elements
Conveyor chains and guide rails
Electrical connections and sensor units
Lubrication points
Routine checks help you catch early signs of wear, such as loose fasteners, frayed belts, or inconsistent sealing. Over time, these checks prevent catastrophic breakdowns and keep machines operating at peak performance.
Maintain Machines Free of Dirt and Residue
A clean machine is an effective machine. When dealing with powder, liquid, or gooey materials, leftover material prevents machines from working accurately and reliably; therefore, over a period of time, when there is a lot of residue built up, temperature sensors can become defective, or belts can become dislodged or slip out of alignment.
Including cleanliness in your system cleaning or preventative maintenance procedure will assist in preventing residue from blocking motion or causing cross-contamination.
Many recommended practices related to commercial packaging equipment manufacturers involve the use of soft brushes, dry rags, and industrial-strength cleaning agents. These should be appropriate for the material used to manufacture the equipment (most are stainless steel). Even when you are cleaning, safety is the top priority; therefore, always ensure the power is off (and/or disconnected) before you begin to clean any equipment.
Keep All Moving Parts on a Regular Lubrication Schedule
Mechanical wear is mostly caused by friction, and a practical maintenance tip is to have a strict lubrication schedule for bearings, rollers, hinges, and chains. Be sure to find the right balance, as too much lubricant can collect dust and dirt and create an abrasive paste that is harmful.
Check your commercial packing equipment suppliers or your instruction manual to see what type and grade of food or industrial lubricant should be used. Frequent and proper lubrication protects against wear and tear on parts, makes parts run quieter, and provides for a smoother operation.
Replace Worn Parts Before They Break
No equipment is immune to wear and tear. Each machine uses consumables as part of its normal operation.
One of the more important aspects of proper maintenance to prevent equipment downtime is to proactively replace sealing belts, heating elements, cutters, and drive belts. Waiting until a component breaks can cause a “domino effect,” damaging other parts nearby. This can lead to higher repair costs and longer periods of time for the equipment to be out of service.
According to the top commercial packing equipment suppliers, it’s best practice to keep a “critical spares” kit on hand. By planning for replacement based on usage cycles rather than based on failures, you will be able to run your production line continuously.
Training should include the following:
Recognizing unusual mechanical noises.
Checking and adjusting belt tension.
Visual inspection of sensors.
Emergency shutdown and safety protocols.
Monitor Machine Performance Metrics
Today’s modern machinery is smarter than ever, with most of today’s manufacturers providing machines that are almost equipped with both PLCs (programmable logic controllers) and digital displays. By monitoring cycles, temperature, fluctuations, and error logs, you can go from using your eyes to do maintenance to using numbers for condition-based monitoring.
As an example, if you had a spike in the motor’s temperature, there could be a misalignment somewhere that you may not yet be able to see. By using the performance data to do “predictive” maintenance, you will fix the issue during downtime rather than during peak production times.
Regular Professional Services
While daily inspections are crucial for keeping your packaging equipment in great working order, they cannot match the value of having a qualified technician with factory training perform service on the equipment every three to six months. An expert technician will have the ability to do in-depth manufacturing tasks like recalibrating controls, upgrading software, and confirming safety circuits that can’t be performed while performing routine maintenance tasks at the end of each day or during cleaning of the equipment.
Record All Maintenance
The record of maintenance performed is the foundation for effectively maintaining and caring for equipment. It is recommended to log all maintenance performed on the equipment in a notebook or electronically, containing the date when the service was performed and the type of service performed.
Dates of inspections and lubrications.
Specific parts replaced and their serial numbers.
Anomalies or minor errors corrected.
Total cycle counts at the time of service.
This record is invaluable for diagnosing recurring issues and helps in justifying budget forecasts for future equipment upgrades.
Preserve the Quality of the Power Supply and the Environmental Conditions
Electronic control systems can easily be damaged due to environmental influences. Common problems caused by inconsistent voltages and moisture, for example, can cause damage to equipment such as computer boards or corrode sensors. To avoid this type of situation, maintain a stable power supply within your facility and provide adequate ventilation. Some manufacturers of commercial packaging equipment suggest using a surge protector and/or a dedicated voltage stabilizer to protect the machine’s “brain” from overvoltage and high-voltage spikes.
When buying spare parts or accessories, make sure they are genuine.
Using “will-fit” parts or buying lower-priced, third-party parts is one of the fastest ways to void the warranty on your equipment and reduce the life of the machine. Always buy parts and accessories that were recommended by your commercial packaging equipment supplier. By using the proper parts, you can ensure everything will work as intended and maintain the original engineering and safety standards of the machine.
Selecting the Best Commercial Packing Equipment Suppliers
When you’re looking for commercial packing equipment suppliers, you are looking for a reliable supplier of packing equipment. Time is money; therefore, every minute of lost productivity due to downtime is time when your business loses out on profits. Thekkanath Technologies is committed to delivering you both state-of-the-art equipment and excellent after-sales service with precision servicing of your packing equipment.
The most profitable packing machines are the ones that receive servicing. By following these maintenance suggestions, which include providing proper lubrication and utilizing data monitoring of your machines, your company will have an asset that produces income for many years.
Choosing the right commercial packing equipment suppliers is critical to your future in the ever-evolving manufacturing environment. Select partners who care about their equipment long-term just as much as you care about your equipment. By taking the necessary precautions, including the use of high-quality OEM parts, your packaging line will continue to operate consistently and dependably over a long time, providing you with adequate production levels for many years to come.
