Food Maintenance
Bidfoods Christchurch: Urschel® Dicing Machine
The Issue
The produce processing division of Bidfoods Christchurch had a very noisy dicing machine experiencing frequent breakdowns.
The noise was of such an extent, it exceeded health & safety parameters. A decibel test recorded it at 96 decibels, much higher than safely recommended.
So, Bidfoods had Agnew Engineering out to discover the cause of the noise and remediate the issue.
The Action
Agnew promptly discovered the American brand Urschel® dicing machine may have experienced an internal ‘crash’, evident by the telltale signs of sheared bolts and worn parts.
Agnew stripped the machine down and replaced damaged parts including two worn sprockets, worn gears and broken bolts. The new parts were spares that Bidfoods had made by Agnew earlier, and were kept as spares should such a breakdown occur.
Agnew recommends food processors have spare parts made for their machines, so they are immediately available when they need them.
“This is an example of when having your own spare parts comes in handy,” says Brian Tomlin. “Have vital spare parts made before you need them. That way there’s no delays to your production should a major breakdown occur.”
The Result
Having replaced the damaged parts, the dicing machine was immediately running smoother and more efficiently.
The noise was reduced considerably, to fall within approved limits and production was not held up by having to wait for spare parts to be made before they could be installed.
