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Maintenance and Remote Support
Christoph Recher, Sales Manager, and Thomas Czioska, Head of Sales & Marketing, of LoeschPack explain maintenance after a new packaging line starts up. LoeschPack offers production support, recommends spare and wear parts based on design and experience, and trains maintenance staff and operators. HMI adjustments are limited to prevent machine crashes, and remote support can be provided on all LoeschPack machines, a few of which now have cameras.
Key takeaways
- Christoph Recher says LoeschPack offers production support at the start, recommends spare and wear parts, and points out the typical wear life of bearings and other parts.
- HMI adjustments are limited so operators cannot override values that could cause a machine crash, and LoeschPack trains both maintenance staff and operators.
- Thomas Czioska says remote support can be provided on all LoeschPack machines, so customers do not have to wait for a service engineer to come to site.
Common questions
- What spare parts should I keep on hand for a new packaging machine?
- According to Thomas Czioska of LoeschPack, the company suggests which spare parts a customer needs, based on its experience with its lines. Christoph Recher adds that the recommended spare parts list is based on the machine's design and on experience with machines of that type, including the typical wear life of bearings and other parts.
- How do you stop operators from changing settings that cause problems?
- Christoph Recher of LoeschPack says operators can make a few adjustments on the HMI if something is not properly aligned, but these are limited so values that should not be overwritten cannot be overridden, since that could cause a machine crash. LoeschPack also trains workers to tackle problems where they occur without causing others.
- What are the benefits of remote support for packaging equipment?
- Thomas Czioska of LoeschPack says remote support can be provided on all of their machines, and a few machines now have cameras so LoeschPack can look at the machine itself when it goes online. The biggest benefit is that the customer does not have to wait for a service engineer to come to the site. Asked how quickly LoeschPack responds, he says, "we go online as fast as possible."
Transcript
Tom Rougeux, President, Piepenbrock Packaging
So, now that a packaging engineer has owned this line, it's up and running, what kind of maintenance issues should a packaging engineer be aware of? What things do they need to pay attention to when they first get a new piece of equipment?
Christoph Recher, Sales Manager, LoeschPack
Well, first of all, I would say we offer production support in the very beginning. Besides from that, we recommend typical spare and wear parts for continuous operation, and we point out what's the typical wear life of bearings or other parts are.
Thomas Czioska, Head of Sales & Marketing, LoeschPack
And we're making training. So, we offer special training for maintenance people, that they know exactly what they have to do and when they have to do that.
Tom Rougeux
So, how do you keep the packaging people, the people on the packaging line, from random button pushing and variation that they can introduce into the system? What kind of precautions do you have against causing problems by trying to help?
Christoph Recher
Of course, in our HMI, you can make a few adjustments if something is not properly aligned, but we limit these adjustments, that you cannot override values that should not be overwritten, because it could cause a machine crash, that, for example, movements overlap each other. Plus, we offer training to the workers as well, that they have the skill to tackle the problem where it occurs and not causing other problems.
Tom Rougeux
And when the service technicians go in to help a customer out, what kind of value do they get from operator input versus what they see on the screen?
Christoph Recher
Well, from operators, you usually get the information when the errors occur. They always occur at the same time, like for example, if they run or if they start up the machine, and it always occurs then when the machine is continuously running, it's not working. That is valuable information that typical operators can provide to our service technicians.
Tom Rougeux
What kind of spare parts should a customer have on hand with the packaging piece of equipment?
Thomas Czioska
Spare parts is always, we make suggestions what kind of spare parts he needs, because we know exactly from our experience what kind of spares are necessary on our lines.
Tom Rougeux
So you provide a recommended spare parts list to the customer when they buy the equipment. Is that based upon the design of the equipment?
Christoph Recher
Yeah, based upon design and of course our experience that we have with machines of that type.
Tom Rougeux
What kind of remote support capabilities are available with the LoeschPack machine?
Thomas Czioska
So we have remote support, or we can provide on all of our machines remote support. We also have in a few machines meanwhile cameras in the machine, so that we also, when we go online from our side, we also can take a look at the machine itself.
Tom Rougeux
How does a customer initiate that? Do they call you for remote support and you're available 24-7? Are you available immediately?
What should they expect?
Thomas Czioska
I would say we go online as fast as possible.
Tom Rougeux
So why is remote support a benefit to a customer?
Thomas Czioska
The biggest benefit is that he has not to wait until the service engineer can come to his site.
