How Ludman service technicians can assist your team
Potash producers worldwide face the challenge of losing their experienced workforce to retirement and competitors. They value vital resources to train their replacements. This challenge is no different in Canada. OEM on-site service is not only an opportunity to maximize your equipment performance, but you could be wasting valuable opportunities if you wait before taking advantage of furthering the training of your operators and maintenance team.
Ludman Industries is a North American-based manufacturer of compaction, briquetting, flaking, granulation, and crushing equipment. Ludman manufactured and assembled equipment for Allis-Chalmers prior to acquiring mineral processing and food-grade product lines in 1986. Ludman is a leading partner of building and supplying these products to Canadian potash producers. Ludman tasks service engineers to assist with equipment maintenance and operation. A typical OEM service visit includes reviewing the following items while simultaneously incorporating value-added training:
- Important safety considerations when operating and maintaining the equipment and reviewing vital safety procedures.
- Local lockout and tagout procedures use.
- Identify sources of stored energy and how to isolate or eliminate them.
- Verify machine guarding is in place and is secure.
- Reviewing the operation and service manual, how it is organized, what information it contains, and where to find it.
- Review daily, weekly, and long-term maintenance checklists in the manual and ensure the plant personnel understand what needs to be done and why.
- Determine if there are site modifications that ease maintenance tasks.
- Access plant start-up procedures and sequence of operations.
- Identify location of lubrication points and the specification of the lubricant to be used.
- Review lubrication frequency and how the plant documents.
- Review machine settings and discuss part life.
- Review alarms, their cause, and what the appropriate response should be.
- Highlight the most frequent alarms observed at the site.
- Review the Piping and Instrumentation Diagram (P&ID).
- Verify personnel understand the P&ID symbols and correlate what is on the schematics to actual hardware.
- Test and review the quality of product produced by equipment.
- Benchmark machines’ performance against what would be expected in this application.
- Assure the equipment is maximizing production and discuss what possible upgrades would be of value based on observations.
- Check oil flow and temperature for compactor bearing and compactor gearbox oil.
- Verify glycol mix flow to heat exchangers.
Ludman service engineers are helpful in reviewing the following housekeeping tasks that are critical to maintain production and protect the mine’s investment, such as:
- Equipment cleanliness and product material build-up
- Moisture and corrosion control
- Wear surface inspection
- Lubrication and seal maintenance
- Alignment and mechanical integrity
- Instrumentation and process control
- Dust control
- Safety procedures and structural integrity
- Emergency plan and procedures
Ludman service engineers have experience across many sites and applications, which helps them to identify site conditions and mineral properties which require customization to compactors and granulators. For example, a customer was experiencing problems with material sticking to the force feeder flights. Ludman optimized the force feeder with a specially designed gravity feed chute, which improved material flow, reduced downtime for maintenance, and improved productivity. At another location, the customer was having problems with grease and dust plugging the labyrinth seals on their compactor rolls. Ludman modified the labyrinths and introduced an air pulse system to keep the labyrinths clean and prevent abrasive dust from reducing seal life. Another customer was losing production yield due to material blowing by the side cheeks at the edge of the compactor rolls. Ludman designed new side cheeks that reduced the blow by and increased production from the customer’s compaction circuit.
The production area is the best classroom for operators and maintainers of compactors and granulators. A service call by a Ludman service engineer is a great opportunity to help employees who do not work directly with the compactor or granulators to receive training because one day they may be asked to do so. Training enables engineers, planners, and buyers to reconnect with production employees and understand their unique challenges, while discussing the nuances of production at the site and gaining invaluable product knowledge.
