Enhancing Maintenance through Lubrication Expertise 

Proactive lubrication management as part of a preventative maintenance programme is crucial to the success of any organisation that is operating machinery.

The benefits can be far-reaching and have a genuine impact on the bottom line, especially when advanced lubricants are combined with a comprehensive lubrication management and training programme.

The experience of one of the UK’s major utility companies illustrates the benefits of this forward-thinking approach extremely well. The Wastewater Department within Northumbrian Water Limited (NWL) has enhanced its maintenance regime by implementing the ROCOLcare® lubrication management programme, which incorporates ROCOL’s lubricants, supported by expert on-site training.

ROCOL were initially contracted by Wastewater within NWL to supply its maintenance lubrication requirements. Through ROCOL’s understanding of the different requirements of both Wastewater and Water and its ability to provide effective lubrication solutions which has enhanced NWL’s maintenance strategy.

NWL serves a population of 2.6 million people in the north east of England with both wastewater and water services, trading as Northumbrian Water, and 1.8 million in the south east of England with water only services, trading as Essex & Suffolk Water, are already seeing tangible benefits.

“Many factors were taken into consideration when appointing a lubrication partner,” says Lisa Layburn at NWL. “Within this process we looked at all areas of cost, including surveys, training and products, as well as the performance quality of the lubricants.”

“ROCOL came through very well, but what sets ROCOL apart is the added value the company provides through its skills and knowledge base. Thanks to its technical support our wastewater operators are now successfully undertaking scheduled lubrication work.”

Sharing expertise through training

As part of the contract ROCOL is conducting surveys at all NWL sewage treatment and water treatment works. These surveys are the cornerstone of the ROCOLcare® programme and they ensure all lubrication requirements are identified at the earliest possible stage so an effective management programme can be devised.

On completion of the surveys, ROCOL is helping NWL implement the lubrication management programme. A fundamental part of this is ensuring all 147 wastewater operators at NWL have the skills and technical knowledge to ensure the right lubricants are applied using the correct methods, in the right quantities at the right times.

With decades of collective experience in maintenance lubricants, ROCOL® has been able to provide training sessions across the operating regions to equip NWL’s wastewater operators with the specialist skills that are vital for long term productivity benefits.

A flexible approach to skills development

But NWL is by no means alone in achieving significant productivity improvements as a result of the training provided by ROCOL. One major tea producer recently entrusted ROCOL® to help formalise its lubrication management programme which included training for its 20 on-site staff.

Part of the formalisation for this tea producer was ensuring traceability is easily demonstrable and one of the key advantages of using ROCOLcare® is the ability to easily access all historical data for the lubrication programme. This provides a clear audit trail to show, in the case of food, drink and clean industries, that NSF H1 registered food-grade lubricants have been used and all health and safety legislation has been followed throughout this element of plant maintenance. 

ROCOL was appointed to survey the requirements of the tea production plant and implement a lubrication programme which is based around its state-of-the-art Sentinel software programme. To ensure all procedures were adhered to, ROCOL® provided extensive training support for the company’s 20 maintenance engineers and it helped set up an ‘auditable lubrication station’ to provide a central information and equipment resource.

Being a UK-based lubricant manufacturer, ROCOL’s technical support is within easy reach and its customers regularly take advantage of the training centre located at its Leeds head office. Typical of the support available is that provided to a chilled fresh food producer which required assistance as part of implementing ROCOLcare® to train its maintenance engineers.

This fresh foods processor was facing a specific issue where water and corrosive fruit juices were contaminating the moving parts of machinery. The solution was ROCOL’s FOODLUBE® Spray, which is a highly versatile lubricant with excellent anticorrosion and water resistance properties, but the company wanted to ensure application and usage were 100% correct.

ROCOL was able to provide comprehensive training for four maintenance engineers and this has been hugely important to the long term success of the company’s maintenance programme.

The benefits experienced by these three companies show how the complementary services provided by ROCOL can help manufacturers in the longer term. Choosing the right lubricants is an important starting point but effective lubrication management supported by the best available technical advice is the only way to maximise the returns.