Abbey Well Natural Mineral Water:
Case Study – Elimination of back pressure problems and improvement in line control
Written by: Peter Stobbs
Title: Engineering Manager
Company Name: Waters & Robson - Abbey Well Natural Mineral Water
Location: Morpeth – Northumberland
Industry: Natural Mineral Water
Production Lines:
Two PET lines using Acetyl Slat chain conveyors (0.25- 2 L PET)
Two Glass lines using Stainless Steel and Acetyl (0.25 – 1 L Glass)
The Challenges
Abbey Well currently has four lines made up of a mixture of acetyl and stainless steel slat chain conveyors.
Originally we switched from water based lubrication to Dry Lube in order to achieve the following;
· Reduce effluent
· Improved working conditions
· Reduce lubricant usage
(Please see previous case study)
Growth in demand for our products and changing business requirements meant that we installed two labellers and stainless conveyor slat chains at required points of the packaging line.
However, after installing the labellers and changing the configuration of the lines, we experienced severe back pressure problems to the point where damage was being caused to the labeller infeed system.
In addition, we have two bottle lowerators that were experiencing wear of the conveyor guide rails. The lowerators were operating with no lubrication at all.
The Solutions
Dry Lube engineers visit us twice every month. Following discussions during these visits, we were advised to use a new lubricant on the stainless steel sections of the conveyor to overcome the back pressure problems. Dry Lube has developed a lubricant (Conveyor Biolube G&S) which is ideal for the stainless steel sections of conveyor and glass bottles on our line. We also have acetyl conveyors on this line. The friction values have dropped significantly on both types of conveyor after changing to this product. The low friction is now been used with improved control to resolve the back pressure problems.
Lubricant has also been taken off the valve blocks to lubricate the bottle lowerators' conveyor guide rails. This has significantly reduced the wear on the conveyor bends.
We still use Conveyor Lube H1 on acetyl belts carrying PET.
The Results
We have experienced all of the results we set out to achieve including;
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Decreased back pressure resulting in improved line control and better bottle handling especially on the single track conveyors.
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Decreased wear on plastic curves or bands (plastic conveyor/plastic guides).
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Reduced tension on curves/bends and reduced loadings on conveyor drives.
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Reduced wear on bends and reduced need for lubrication due to improved lubricant.
Overall, the modifications made have improved efficiencies on both glass lines by around 3%. In addition, down time caused by the previous high infeed pressures on both the Glass Bottle Labellers, has been significantly reduced.
We have also noticed a reduction in the amount of wear to the slat bends although further running will confirm this. We have found that the new Conveyor Biolube G&S runs cleaner with glass than the previous Conveyor Lube H1 product. This has resulted in a corresponding reduction in cleaning requirements.
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