Lawrence Marson, maintenance engineer at the Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottingham plant, explains that it had been using oil-sealed vacuum pumps on the moulding lines producing alarm, signalling and control equipment.
However, downtime due to pump maintenance was causing problems. "We were visited by an Elmo Rietschle engineer, who explained how the dry running S-VSI 300 Twister screw vacuum pumps could significantly reduce our issues," states Marson.
"The evidence that Elmo Rietschle provided in our initial discussions gave us the confidence to install six new S-VSI 300 pumps – two per moulding machine," he continues.
"As they're dry running and water-cooled, there's no oil for any debris to stick to and they operate consistently 24/7," he adds.
Marson says the new machines are now serviced every six months, which means a significant reduction to Eaton's maintenance costs.
"The pumps are installed in cradles, which can be stacked, meaning they can be easily swapped out for scheduled maintenance without disrupting operation," he says.
"We're so pleased with how they have been performing that we've recently placed an order for two more pumps for another moulding machine, and expect to install Elmo Rietschle pumps on two more machines in the near future, meaning we'll have 12 to 13 S-VSI 300s on site in total."
Marson concedes that changing the vacuum pump technology was a leap of faith, but says they have worked well and adds that the firm will now be ordering more S-VSI 300s.
"We expect the existing pumps to have paid for themselves within just 12 months."