Maintenance Technology May 2017 - 11

PLANT PROFILE

(All photos courtesy of
Aquatherm.)

Reliability
when Aquatherm Worldwide assumed control of the North
American companies Aquatherm LP (U.S.) and Aquatherm
Corp. (Canada). North American operations are based in
Lindon, UT, and feature a new 82,000-sq.-ft. facility that
opened in April 2017. All corporate departments are housed in
this facility, along with a cutting-edge Design and Fabrication
Services department and quality-assurance laboratory.

Maintenance best practices
Aquatherm's maintenance team includes 40 specialized
workers-metal workers, electricians, and machine fitters.
Most are maintenance foremen and technicians. Consistent and
regular training is the key to keeping the team up to date with
the latest technologies.
"Our maintenance workers are trained regularly, both
in-house and externally," Rosenberg said. "We empower them
to perform their tasks as efficiently and quickly as possible.
The operations and maintenance teams work closely
together. Short distances between the different departments
make it easy to react quickly to challenges and encourage
cooperation and information exchange between team members.
Aquatherm is committed to keeping most of the maintenance
of its equipment in house. "It is part of our company culture to
do as much of our maintenance in house as possible with our
highly qualified staff," Rosenberg said. "We have a staff design
team, which uses CAD to design our extrusion and injectionmoulding tools. The tools are then manufactured in our tool
shop. For us there is great value in using our own experienced
staff to design special tools. This allows us to be highly flexible.
We can react to new requirements quickly and appropriately
MAY 2017

When designing the
new extrusion plant, the
team needed a solution
to how best deliver the
cooling water for the
extrusion process. After
some creative design
work, it was decided to
create a 300-ft.-long
tunnel under the facility,
specifically for this
purpose.

while ensuring we preserve our high standards."
Automation and advanced technology continues to play a
key role.
"One good example of how our maintenance team made a
difference for our production department and helped us to save
costs is the installation of an additional measuring device at the
beginning of our extrusion lines," Rosenberg explained. "The
device measures the pipe diameter and compares the pipe's
actual value with standard values. Previously, we only had a
measuring device at the end of the production lines. With the
new device installed at the beginning of the line, we can react
immediately to variations and adjust the machine settings, as
necessary. This is a simple but smart solution that has helped us
reduce machine setup times and increase product quality."

Building for growth
Planning and development of the new extrusion production
facility was done in-house with a team of experts. From the
initial planning phase, all participating departments were
involved-extrusion, building-technology, electrical, metalworking, and technical-purchasing departments, as well as
plant and company management.
"The idea behind staffing it was to have a cross-functional
team combining the experience of all departments and to
implement missed opportunities of the past in the new
building," Rosenberg said. "The ideal pipe production was
planned using all the technical and organizational input of the
entire team."
All 19 extrusion lines now are located on the ground floor
of the building. The material supplies, as well as auxiliary and
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