RESTARTING PRODUCTION LINES – What to Consider

RESTARTING PRODUCTION LINES –  What to consider

In December 2020, the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) published a paper called “Manufacturing: returning to work safely during the Coronavirus Pandemic”. This covered several aspects of bringing production lines back into use after a protracted layoff.

The first of these is inspection, both of the structure of the machines to see if there is any sign of corrosion or failed seals or joints due to inactivity, followed by a “functional test (running the machine in a no-load condition, at slow speed if possible) looking and listening for any indications that the moving parts are in distress.” The paper goes on to address maintenance. “It’s important that you take any corrective action following your inspection of the physical condition of machinery before returning it into service. Maintenance ensures that it continues to operate safely and also that it’s reliable and productive”.

We have talked about the benefits of planned over reactive maintenance in the past and if you are bringing a production line back into use over the next few weeks or months then having critical areas, such as your compressed air system inspected by an expert is essential. Recommissioning of machines after downtime is considered to be more extensive than normal maintenance activities. Booking an air audit from Harrier Pneumatics is a relatively simple way of checking the condition of your compressed air plant. This is especially true in areas such as food, electronics, or pharmaceutical production where contaminants can adversely affect both the process machinery and the end product, causing more downtime and loss of production at a time when demand from customers could well be high.

An air audit can have an immediate impact on improving manufacturing productivity and continuity. Longer term capital spending and cost savings will translate straight to the business bottom line as well as reducing your carbon footprint and identifying future maintenance requirements. Breakdown prevention is always much less painful, disruptive, or expensive than rectifying problems after there has been a problem. Our engineering team are highly skilled, fully trained and experienced in providing well planned and comprehensive servicing and maintenance cover production facilities in many industries. They are on call to assist with recommissioning your plant and can support you in getting back to work promptly.

It may be of course that you have been operating for the whole period of lockdown. In which case it is also important to review the maintenance and service records of your compressed air system. If you have restricted the number of operatives on site, when did your maintenance team last look in detail at any problems? Harrier’s engineers can attend your works in a Covid Secure manner ensuring that work can be carried out without jeopardising the safety of your staff or ours. Get in touch with Harrier Pneumatics to book an air audit and maintenance check for your plant.

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This post was written by Harrier Pneumatics