For any company within manufacturing, engineering or production, hot melt systems are a necessity. They are also a key part of the production line which can shut-down the whole operation if broken. Naturally, this is not ideal as it can lead to lost time, lost money and even missed deadlines. It’s therefore essential to find ways of reducing the downtime your hot melt system could suffer from.
But how can you do this?
Regular Cleaning Of Key Parts
As with most other machines or systems, regular cleaning of crucial components is the first step. Over time, degraded hot melt adhesive can cause blockages or degrade components if left unchecked. The main parts to keep clean are in-line filters, tank filters, nozzles and hoses. These are very simple to check and replace and should instantly help reduce the amount of downtime you see.
Keep Spare Nozzles Ready To Use
Nozzles are a key part of any hot melt system and you should ideally send them off for cleaning when dirty. This means they stay in good condition and last for longer. It is also worthwhile so you always have back-up nozzles ready to use if the ones in your system need changing. If you do not have clean nozzles ready to put in, then you will either be faced with downtime or having to pay full price for new nozzles. Here at The Adhesive Laundry, we can test, clean, polish and return nozzles to customers within 24 hours. This means you will always have some ready to fit if needed.
Rule Out Basic Issues Quickly
A good way to help cut back on downtime is by implementing a Preventative Maintenance Plan. A regular maintenance schedule will cut back on the downtime when calling out an engineer to inspect the machine involved. By the time they have come down, given the machine the once over and gone back for the right part, it could take at least 30 minutes! Regular maintenance reduces this amount of downtime by eliminating the need for an engineer to come out at all or helping them arrive with the right spare part.
Book A Hot Melt Audit
The best way to reduce downtime is by booking a hot melt audit. This type of audit looks at every aspect of your system to see where it may need attention or where efficiency can be improved. As a result, you will not be caught out by machinery which suddenly breaks down and sees you wasting valuable time to fix it.
Here at The Adhesive Laundry, we offer great value hot melt audits. Our audit will look at your whole system and produce an in-depth report on its condition and how it is working. This will save you lots of money in spare parts and downtime in the long term. Get in touch today for more details.
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