Preparing for your Summer Shutdown?

If you’re performing maintenance and repairs, a facility reorganisation for production efficiency or safety, or machinery upgrades and replacements, a summer shutdown period is the ideal time to ensure the highest levels of cleaning, safety and compliance across your manufacturing site.

Maintenance is key to compliance. Without upholding the regular maintenance of your machinery, you are not only increasing the risk of machine failure and ultimately the risk of downtime, but it also vastly increases the risk of accidents and health and safety issues.

In preparation for your summer shutdown

Review your existing approach

A summer shutdown period is the ideal time to take a step back and review your maintenance and cleaning procedures. If you haven’t been keeping up with a consistent maintenance schedule, Millers Oils Technical Support Team or Fluid Management Division are more than happy to discuss your requirements and come up with a maintenance schedule which not only optimises your machinery performance, but minimises unscheduled downtime and disruption throughout the year.

Get in touch with Millers Oils

Selecting the best fluid for your application

Our knowledgeable team will choose a lubricant based on the manufacturer specification, viscosity of the oil, and the machinery environment.

Technical Support

With years of experience supporting the manufacturing sector through our services, Millers Oils have built on our expertise and understanding of the unique requirements of the industrial sector. Our Technical Support Team are available to offer knowledge and advice on selecting the correct products, services and best practice.

Fluid Management Division

The core principle of Millers Oils Fluid Management Division is to assist companies with preventative maintenance. Our team can work alongside you during your summer shutdown to conduct critical maintenance, without causing disruption to your production line.

The team will work alongside you to review your site and assist with initial fill, remedial filtration and servicing to ensure that the lubricants are always up to standard and extended where applicable.

How can Millers Oils assist during your summer shutdown period?

Your shutdown period will involve fluid clean out, machine drain and change of systems in an industrial setting. Optimise efficiency and performance by ensuring all your maintenance, decommissioning and installation work takes place during your summer shutdown.

Machine Drain

If you are just doing drain and refill with fresh fluid/oil or you are decommissioning machines for removal, relocating premises or amending the layout of machines within the plant, our team can complete a service drain.

Even if the oil is being disposed of, by completing an oil sample analysis beforehand, you can understand what condition the oil is in, and if any changes to the maintenance schedule need to be made. The results of the analysis also determine whether the oil can be reused, reducing the environmental impact of your business.

Clean out

Minimise contamination of new oil by ensuring a thorough clean out of the old oil is complete. A clean system with fresh oil will ensure optimal performance and protection.

Water soluble cutting fluid

For a water soluble cutting fluid, or coolant, a 2-step method is implemented.

1. In preparation for dropping the coolant, Millercare SC (System Cleaner) will be used. Typically at 2% but increased strength up to 5% where high levels of accumulated dirt require removal. This will be allowed to circulate for 24 hours, with an absolute minimum continuous circulation of 8 hours.
2. Upon completion, the coolant will be drained and a manual clean out will be necessary.

Hydraulic

Using a non-solvent cleaner such as Milliclean 1000T, when added at 20% sump capacity for up to 48 hours, removes lacquer, varnish and sludge, not just from the tank but also the pipework, hoses and pumps whilst the machine is still in operation. Find out more here.

Waste Disposal

For waste disposal, our Fluid Management technicians can take the waste oil from site, issuing a consignment note to comply with the environment agency’s waste oil removal regulations. If the waste is high volume, we will organise the removal of waste oil through our specialised waste licenced operator the next working day, who will also issue a consignment note.

Refill

Water soluble cutting fluid

Our technicians will follow industry guidelines and adhere to product specific processes to ensure longevity and optimum product performance.

Hydraulic Oil filtration

For specialist hydraulic applications, Millers Oils Fluid Management Technicians will refill machines with further on-site filtration to ensure that the recommended OEM ISO cleanliness codes (or better) are achieved.

For sensitive or critical applications, such as injection moulding, power plants or aerospace, even fresh oil may require filtration. The filtration technology used reduces particle count to avoid wear, damage and blockages in precision equipment, ensuring that equipment runs at optimum efficiency, extending the life of the oil used, and reducing the number of drain cycles. Ultimately, saving time, money and the environmental impact of your business.

After the summer shutdown period

Millers Oils continue to support your business. Our Technical Support and Customer Service teams are available for prompt responses to general enquiries, trouble-shooting or product recommendations.

We schedule routine maintenance and oil sample analysis to advise on the condition of your oil for preventative maintenance scheduling to ensure that your facility is safe and all machinery is operating at optimal performance. Any remedial work can be carried out by our experienced fluid management technicians.

Oil Sampling

Type of use can decrease the service life of the oil leading to increased oxidation. In applications where the sump is filled with oil and left to run until the next maintenance opportunity, actuators, valves and other components can start to stick or wear, without the maintenance departments being aware of an issue.

By taking samples of the oil, our team can keep your maintenance department informed of your machine’s oil condition with a report of oil analysis results, including viscosity, additive level, contamination, wear metal and particular counts.

If oil contamination, degradation or equipment wear has been detected, remedial work can be scheduled and completed during your summer shutdown period, avoiding expensive breakdowns and unscheduled downtime.

Find out more about Millers Oils Fluid Management Division. 

For more information, send them an email: fluid.management@millersoils.co.uk.

Read about a successful Injection Moulding Machine Clean-Out with Milliclean 1000T here.

Read about Minimising the Oxidation of Hydraulic Oil here. 

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