AV Technology helps keep Unilever in peak condition.

AV Technology Ltd (AVT), one of Europe's leading condition monitoring consultancies, is expanding its vibration based predictive maintenance activities with the global manufacturer Unilever.

To ensure they remain at the forefront of their field, Unilever demand the highest standards from their critical production plants. To this end, the condition monitoring provided by AVT ensures plant and equipment are maintained in peak condition.

This new condition monitoring contract, which has been awarded following successful implementation of similar services at the company's Burton and Port Sunlight sites, is for the Unilever UK Foods Crumlin facility in South Wales, which manufactures and packages Pot Noodles.

The UK Foods Burton site, which produces Marmite and Bovril, was the first Unilever plant to benefit from a predictive maintenance programme in July 2004. Today, this runs as an ongoing monitoring programme which requires approximately five days per month on site support. Meanwhile a successful trial was also conducted at the sulphation plant at the Unilever Home and Personal Care Port Sunlight facility earlier this year, which has also led to increased level of involvement by the AVT Condition Monitoring team.

Senior consulting engineer for AVT, Mark Oliver has been managing the condition monitoring at the Burton site for the last 12 months, and said the programme has been extremely successful in enabling Unilever to maintain its high production standards.

"We have isolated and monitored key pieces of equipment on all lines using the latest vibration monitoring equipment. As a result we have then been able to make recommendations to Unilever for preventative maintenance work which has meant the plant has been repaired before any unanticipated breakdowns have occurred.

"One of the most major repairs was initiated during monitoring at the Burton site. Irregularities were picked up upon the monitoring of a large Glatt fan, a key component in the production line. Our reports flagged that it required attention. This meant it was able to be scheduled for removal and repair before potential failure. Instances like these enable Unilever to keep one step ahead with equipment repairs and to predict and plan for maintenance at this and other sites.

"Our relationship with Unilever has grown substantially over the last year and we look forward to developing this further by continuing to follow up these contracts and potentially expanding to other plants.

"We are thrilled to add Unilever to our growing list of customers in the food and beverage industry such as Cadburys, Diageo and Dairycrest."

Brian Noon, engineer and total productive maintenance manager at Unilever's Burton site, said "the benefits to us are priceless, saving us both time and money in all aspects of maintenance.

"The failure mode analysis gives us the foresight to predict potential failures, which has significant benefits and greatly reduces our downtimes. By forewarning us of possible breakdowns we can also schedule appropriate maintenance at the most convenient times. And we have already experienced a substantial reduction in breakdowns overall."

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