Outsourced maintenance

As a renowned manufacturer of mechanical seals, components and supply systems, John Crane has years of experience in the use of safety-related products in chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical plants, and works very successfully with numerous customers in the field of service and maintenance programmes. DSM Fine Chemicals Austria develops innovative products and services in life sciences and materials sciences. At its Linz facility, the company operates eight production lines. The use of technologically advanced agitators and pumps demands great attention to detail, a high level of expertise, and trained production and operating staff. In March 2007, DSM Fine Chemicals Austria therefore decided to renew the existing 5-year strategic service agreement with John Crane, covering agitators equipped with seals, for another five years. Twelve months prior to this, John Crane had already won an extension of the service contract for pumps over a further five years. During the term of the previous agreement, John Crane did not just satisfy the expectations of DSM Fine Chemicals Austria, but exceeded them by a considerable margin. Indeed, due to its consistent analysis and documentation of damages and implementation of improvements, machine availability was in some cases increased by more than 50 %. DSM Fine Chemicals Austria comments on this service agreement as follows: the most important benefit was the joint root cause analysis of the service provider and our maintenance and operating staff. Not only did this lead to an exchange of inside knowledge between both sides, it also created a mutual understanding of each other’s requirements and needs. What swayed DSM’s decision was the shared interest of the operator and supplier in continuing the maintenance programme, resulting in a clear win-win situation for both partners. In addition to the pump agreement covering approximately 750 machines, there is a separate agreement for around 250 agitators.

DSM Fine Chemicals Austria would like to continue benefiting from greater system availability and higher machine efficiency. In addition to these important factors – which are growing even more critical due to the rising demands on the performance of rotating equipment – DSM Fine Chemicals Austria can now calculate the maintenance costs for the next contract period exactly. A fixed-charge agreement encompasses all services over the entire term of the agreement. There are no unforeseen increases in the maintenance budget for mechanical seals. For all of the services agreed, DSM pays an annual lump sum which is less than the amount expended on the maintenance of mechanical seals in previous years. The main saving arises, however, from the avoidance of repairs and costly machine breakdowns as well as associated costs. The agreement includes:

The requirements profile is drawn up by John Crane personnel on site and all repairs and problems are analysed and documented in detail. This analysis covers not just the agitator seals themselves but the entire environment. Mechanical errors and process-induced failures are identified and resolved at an early stage. Meetings are held at regular intervals with operating, maintenance and engineering staff for this purpose. The plant-specific knowledge gained in this way allows problems to be anticipated and therefore avoided in advance by selecting the optimum equipment to purchase. Information about new plants and machinery is passed on to project departments at an early stage.

Another important factor for DSM is the use of efficient sealing technology, namely gas-lubricated agitator seals. This technology is now standard in pharmaceutical production. DSM Fine Chemicals Austria employs more than 30 agitators with gas-lubricated seals. The advantages of non-contact, and therefore frictionless, gas-lubricated double seals are obvious. Gas-lubricated agitator seals offer a large number of benefits in pharmaceutical production as well as in other chemical processes:

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DSM Fine Chemicals Austria

John Crane mechanical seals