Spare Parts on Your Shelf Can Significantly Reduce Downtime
At Liquid Packaging Solutions, we always have spare parts for packaging machinery on our shelf. Keeping a full room stocked with typical spare parts is one of the ways that we try our best to serve our family of packagers from all different industries. However, many of the machines manufactured by LPS contain custom components, which may or may not be available off the shelf. In addition, given that our customers are scattered both across the United States and even around the world, we always suggest that certain parts be kept by packagers in house to counter those unexpected or sudden technical issues.
Most packaging machines will include wear parts of one type or another. Wear parts are those components of the machine that come in contact with certain other components of the packaging process. For example, spindle wheels on a capping machine will contact the closure in order to tighten the cap down. Similarly, nozzle seals on an overflow bottle filler will come in contact with the bottle to create a seal during the fill. These wear parts will need to be replaced over time, though excessive wear or replacement could be a sign of more complicated issues. When machinery is initially purchased from LPS, a spare parts kit will usually be offered based on the machinery being manufactured. While this is an optional piece of the packaging puzzle, having these wear parts on hand can be the difference between fifteen minutes of downtime while the component is replaced and two or three days of downtime waiting for parts to ship.
As noted above, many different machines from LPS are also custom manufactured. In these cases, extra time may be necessary to set up machinery to manufacture specials parts such as nozzles, seals, chucks and more. While such components may be manufactured with extras at the initial stage of manufacturing, it becomes even more important to keep an extra on hand when the parts are custom made, in that the delviery time would be extended even beyond shipping to include the fabrication of the parts. A
At LPS we understand that all businesses have turn over from time to time. For those packagers that are not sure which parts would be considered wear parts or which would be best suited to keep on hand at the production facility, the LPS Parts & Technical Service Department is always willing to consult with operators or owners on the equipment to make suggestions. The Parts Department can be reached for consultation, pricing or ordering by calling Toll Free at 1-888-393-3693 or by emailing tonya@liquidpackagingsolution.com.