How To Tackle Daunting Maintenance: A Successful Shutdown Story

At Crane Engineering, we're here to make your life easier during plant shutdowns. We recently helped a local beverage plant overhaul the majority of its equipment during a planned summer shutdown. After a comprehensive inspection and extensive planning, we repaired a whopping 200 valves and 12 pumps!

In this blog post, we'll explain how we did it and why you should consider partnering with Crane Engineering for your next plant shutdown, especially if you're short-handed.

How to Address Daunting Plant Maintenance

The beverage plant in Kenosha, WI was faced with an overwhelming amount of plant maintenance, beyond the capacity of their internal maintenance department. In need of a turnkey service team, they reached out to Crane Engineering for help.

We started by walking through the plant and inspecting all of their sanitary equipment. We found several valves that were not working properly which increased production time. After a comprehensive review, 200 valves and 12 pumps needed attention, all different brands and models.

Planning for a Plant Shutdown

We worked with the Flowtrend Process Care team to identify the parts and rebuild kits needed to repair all of the equipment. The repair kits were expedited and Flowtrend was able to supply parts for the obsolete equipment that was no longer supported by the OEM.

Now that we knew the size and scope of the project, it was time to come up with a plan for the shutdown. With only 5 days to complete the repairs during their shutdown, we assembled a service team of eight technicians from Crane Engineering and Flowtrend Inc. Our technicians are well-versed in servicing fluid-handling equipment from various manufacturers, which was crucial for this shutdown.

With repair kits in hand and a service crew ready, it was time to get 'er done!

Executing the Repair Plan

Equipped with everything we needed and a dedicated crew, we started the shutdown by carefully tagging every piece of equipment. With this many valves and pumps to repair, it was critical to know how to put things back together after service. Every single connection was labeled, whether it was a process connection, electrical connection, or pneumatic connection.

We removed each piece of equipment for service, fixing and replacing parts to ensure every valve and pump functioned perfectly. Our team worked hard and put in long hours to get the job done during the shutdown.

The result? A successful shutdown with 200 valves and 12 pumps now working like new. We performed an I/O check and double-checked our work to confirm everything was running smoothly.

Shutdown Review

After the shutdown, we provided the beverage plant with a detailed report that included pictures and information on all the serviced equipment. Each item was also tagged with a repair note, making it easy to see when it was last serviced and what was repaired.

It's easy to forget to review everything that happens during a busy shutdown, but we believe it is important to provide a detailed summary for maintenance records. In this case, our review found missing parts and valves that still needed attention. This shutdown not only improved their process and production speed but also gave insights for future maintenance.

If you want help planning your next shutdown or service, contact Crane Engineering so we can help you get the job done right!