Conveyor System Maintenance Top Tips

Conveyor Systems are a critical element in a food production environment but their maintenance can sometimes be missed as the actual production elements receive the majority of focus. This is often caused by the fact that conveyor systems just seem to work. In this article we will look at 7 tips that might help improve conveyor system maintenance.

Conveyor System Maintenance Top Tips

• When you purchase a new conveyor system from Wrightfield Conveyor manuals and documentation are typically handed over after commissioning  The conveyor systems documents will be extremely important for your maintenance / engineering team to understand how to repair and maintain the conveyor system. Wrightfield also include Spare part numbers and information on how to get replacement parts
• Document all repairs and maintenance you’ve made. Any maintenance performed on conveyor systems should be written in a machine log. This should include noting the cause for the maintenance and the effect. Capturing this information can help you establish a better understanding of what is failing within your conveyor system. It could be beneficial to  highlight if the issue is a repeating issue and leaves a note for all staff on how to fix the issues going forward.

Preventative Conveyor System Maintenance

• Old conveyor systems can be costly and even sometimes impossible to source parts for. It is important to understand what parts of your conveyor system are obsolete equipment ( before they fail in operation). instead of continuously repairing old, worn out systems it may beneficial in the longer term to replace elements of the  conveyor system with a modern, more robust and reliable conveyor. Wrightfield can help companies evaluate the performance and capability of their existing conveyor systems and establish the most effective way for you to conduct conveyor maintenance.
• The approach of preventative maintenance not reactive maintenance can pay dividends. Regularly maintaining your conveyor system should allow your conveyor system to run smoothly. It is always best if you can avoid using the conveyor system with damaged electric motors run or damaged bearings as this may prevent further damage to your conveyor system. Routine and frequent check ups allow you to recognise issues and faults within your conveyor system before the conveyor system stops working. This allows you to schedule maintenance before the system breaks, preventing expensive and frustrating unplanned down time
• Have a set of key conveyor spares on site. Having a full set of key spares on site is vital to keep your conveyor system running. The majority of conveyor systems need to be fully operational as a single part of the conveyor breaking will often affect the whole system. This is especially important if the conveyor system has bespoke parts that are not available off the shelf
• Most food processing sites use their conveyor systems daily and they are designed to be run regularly in many cases 24/7. Long or lengthy periods of stagnation of a conveyor system can leave motors and bearings seized. Perhaps a production line is stopped on a seasonal basis or as a result of sales reductions.  In these circumstances occasionally running the conveyor system can help avoid system seizure which would result in a large maintenance repair cost to restore parts of the conveyor system.
• Keeping your conveyor system clean and removing foreign detritus will help reduce the need for maintenance. A dirty, unkempt conveyor system increases the chances of system failure. This could be through belts slipping which will make the motors work harder and reduce their efficiency / capability. A longer belt life can be achieved by removing foreign objects that can create additional wear on the belt.  On a clean conveyor system system faults can more easily be identified, preventing further damage through preventative maintenance.

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