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At operations with heavy-duty belt conveyors, proactive monitoring and proper maintenance are crucial to the overall success of the organization. When belt cleaner maintenance is not regularly performed, or is performed improperly, it can lead to increased costs and premature cleaner replacements. Allowing the problem to continue unchecked will significantly impact your bottom line.
Your Hidden Cost
Premature cleaner replacements can go unnoticed for some time. It can take months or years of reflection to recognize the pattern. At one major operation, a site procurement manager noticed that although they were buying the same belt cleaners each year, they were not adding new conveyors at the same rate. With further investigation, he also discovered that if the team had been keeping up with regular maintenance, replacing the cleaners could have been prevented.
Clearly there was a disconnect between monitoring and maintenance. The maintenance team explained that getting someone to regularly perform the maintenance was challenging, and that without regular maintenance, the operation required more frequent cleaner replacements. The operation had 50 belt cleaners on site and replaced, on average, seven cleaners per year. Once the problem had been identified, it was clear that this hidden cost was significantly impacting the operation’s yearly bottom line in more ways than one.
Our Found Solution
All it took was a meeting with a Flexco representative to get the operation’s maintenance issue on the right track. The team learned that the Flexco Elevate® IOT platform would not only counteract the inadequate maintenance process, but it would also improve the organization’s profitability as a result. The site implemented Elevate to monitor the cleaners, create a digital service record using the i3 Mobile App, and align the maintenance team with a proactive maintenance schedule.
The cutting edge Elevate® i3 Devices attach to the end of cleaners to monitor performance and wirelessly transmit data to a cloud-based dashboard. This intelligence is remotely accessible, allowing the organization to both monitor data and foster accountability for regular maintenance. While hidden problems can be easy to overlook, proactive monitoring allows teams to prioritize maintenance and avoid premature blade or cleaner replacements.
Add It Up
The operation installed 25 Flexco Elevate® i3 Devices to monitor belt cleaners and avoid the average annual replacement rate of 7 out of 50 belt cleaners per year. As a result, the team avoided an estimated $24,000 in equipment replacement expenses. But that was only the beginning. On top of the money saved in equipment replacements, an estimated $33,000 was reallocated from labor time spent on replacements.
This increased effectiveness of the cleaners resulted in decreased downtime and $64,000 of reclaimed production per year. All in all, this operation realized $121,000 in total estimated value created by Flexco Elevate®.
Are you able to predict maintenance and improve the effectiveness of the equipment on your operation? 
to see if your operation is ready to benefit from Flexco Elevate®.
Authored by: Ryan Grevenstuk, Director of Marketing – Heavy Duty
Ryan Grevenstuk is responsible for strategic global business and market plans, industry and market research, new product development, customer relationship management, and technical support for the heavy-duty product lines at Flexco.