I would like to start from a case that occurred at MLT Cuccolini to show how easy it is to lose sight of the real goals of maintenance if you do not rely on the manufacturer’s support service, such as our Aftermarket Division.

A customer who has been performing safety screening of an abrasive mineral at their quarry since 2007 (the machine therefore has about 20 years of honourable service) recently requested, for the third time in recent years, the replacement of structural parts: the bottom of the machine and the screening deck, in addition to other normally wearing spare parts.

At this point, given that this third request had now reached our Aftermarket Division, we wanted to investigate more closely the reasons behind the need to replace these structural parts.

While it is true that the bottom of the screen, especially if not protected by a special anti-wear lining (available in our range), could be subject to premature wear due to the abrasiveness of the product, we could not understand why the deck was also affected.

We therefore proposed that the customer purchasing a new machine.

While discussing this, which to them was an unexpected proposal, we discovered that the customer had been using non-original spare parts in the whole area related to the ball-cleaning system of the mesh.

This ill-judged purchase, since the component was not designed and manufactured to vibrate at the same frequency as the screen on which it was installed, ended up damaging the edges of the conical bottom and the deck, making it impossible to correctly tighten the fixing ring and the external gasket, and also causing loss of sealing around the entire circumference of the screen.

The abrasive product, leaking into areas where it was not supposed to pass under normal circumstances, then completed the damage by wearing out the last remaining sound parts.

So it was not just wear that caused the problems at the customer’s plant, but maintenance carried out without consulting our support services and with a “do-it-yourself” approach that caused more harm than good.

Relying on a support service like the one provided by our Aftermarket Division allowed the customer to identify the real cause of the failure and correct it, avoiding further breakages and reducing maintenance costs – after purchasing our new screen, of course.