One of the country’s largest manufacturers of own label chilled pizza, with a 43% market share, relies on high production availability to meet the freshness and just-in-time delivery requirements of its customers. The costs – and reputational damage as a reliable supplier – of unplanned downtime and the consequent supply disruption are so significant that the company is willing to invest in protecting both its reputation and profits.

This need for reliable and predictable production output prompted the company to explore options to help monitor the condition of the heavy-duty gearboxes on the ovens, the most critical piece of equipment on the manufacturing line. Although they undertook predictive maintenance routines on these vital assets every 12 weeks, this did not provide them with the confidence that there would not be a failure and loss of production in the intervening period.

The company’s Condition Based Monitoring Engineer was introduced to WearDetect, the Gill oil condition sensor, as it provided them with that essential continuous real-time insight into the health of the oven gearboxes which their current procedures did not. The sensor’s ability to capture and analyse both ferrous fine wear debris and coarse failure particles provided them with continuous reporting of gearbox health. Additionally, they also wanted to monitor the temperature of the oil – another indicator of potential problems developing – which is another integrated measurement feature incorporated within the sensor. The sensor is also capable of detecting water in oil and whilst this parameter is useful re-assurance to the engineer, on this occasion, it is not a problem that they encounter.