Malt maker

UK-based Muntons has been producing malt and malted ingredients for almost a century.

The company is organised into two operating divisions: Muntons Malt, which serves the brewing and distilling industries, and Muntons Malted Ingredients, which focuses on food industries and non-alcoholic beverages.

Investing in condition monitoring provided us with a rapid return on investment

AVT spokesman

In an effort to improve its reputation for quality and service, Muntons implemented a vibration analysis, thermal imaging and visual surveillance programme in 2007.

Maintenance and integrity consultancy AVT Reliability was integral to Muntons’ programme.

Machine Failure

Before commissioning the services of AVT Reliability, however, tasks such as machine lubrication were carried out by Muntons’ engineers.

As such, there was no formal plan and no history of which machines had been lubricated, when they had been lubricated, and by how much.

Prior to 2007, Muntons was also experiencing frequent machine failures. It sought help from AVT to reduce its unplanned production stoppages while extending the usable life of the lubricants used within machinery.

AVT Reliability says it was able to demonstrate how this could be achieved by implementing an ongoing condition monitoring programme. One of the first actions taken by AVT was to assign a dedicated start-up team to Muntons.

The team was given the specific task of carrying out an initial site survey, with the aim of better understanding vibration analysis and lubrication requirements at Muntons. AVT assigned a lubrication engineer to the Muntons site with responsibility for populating the MAINTelligence database.

MAINTelligence is a Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) that is able to fully integrate asset management, condition monitoring and inspection and asset management technologies within a single database, AVT says.

It took this approach to ensure that all critical assets were correctly audited at the early stages of the project and that the correct number of vibration analysis points had been identified and trend data captured.

In 2011 AVT introduced thermography on site and started carrying out six-monthly inspections on electrical panels, to enhance condition monitoring activities.

To date, 48 advisories have been raised due to infrared (IR) inspections, it says.

Muntons also discovered that as lubrication issues fell, so too did bearing costs (see graph above). In the seven years since AVT has been working with Muntons, the company has reported a marked increase in reliability through vibration analysis, thermal imaging IR and visual surveillance.

It says reliability has also increased due to regular lubrication routines that include greasing, oil checks and oil monitoring.

“Partnering with AVT Reliability has given our engineers a much better understanding of the health of our assets,” says a spokesperson from Muntons.

“We have seen significant improvements in MTBF (mean time between failure) and minimised the amount of production time lost to unplanned stoppages.

“Investing in condition monitoring provided us with a rapid return on investment and made significant financial savings due to less responsive maintenance and minimising production downtime,” the spokesperson adds.