Guala Closures saves £200k by installing oil filters

Italian closures specialist Guala has saved an estimated £200,000 as a result of adopting an oil cleaning system for its 25 hydraulic injection moulding machines.

Guala Closures has been working with Tris UK at is Glasgow site in order to improve the efficiency of its operations, avoid machine breakdowns and reduce wastage.

After performing a case study, Guala found that it had saved around £200,000 after installing Tris UK’s triple bypass oil cleaning system 10 years ago.

Craig McCall, maintenance team eader at Guala’s Glasgow facility, said: “Historically, the manufacturing site at Glasgow had a significant issue with injection moulding machines breaking down. Pumps were having to be replaced three or four times a year on the machines, valves were jamming at around the same rate, and each time a part was replaced, the machine oil had to be changed as well. Not to mention that the machine would be down for 24 – 36 hours while remedial works were taking place. As anyone in the industry will know, pumps cost around £5k each, and valves £2k, so the cost of replacing those alone was extremely high.”

“With 25 hydraulic injection moulding machines, and 400 litres of oil each time, it was adding up to a tremendously wasteful and costly problem. We didn’t know what was causing it, so put it down to inevitable wear and tear on the components.”

After consulting with Andrew Thoms, managing director of Tris UK, Guala instead found that the cause of their problem was dirty oil. Based on an analysis of the oil samples from Guala’s machines, Thoms recommended installing filters, and was able to determine how often they would need changing.

Tris’s system removes the three major forms of oil contaminants – sold particles, resins and water – by forcing the oil through a 114m thick three-layer filter.

McCall added: “We’ve had no pump or valve replacements in 10 years thanks to Tris UK’s Triple R filters and Andy’s incredible service. They’ve saved us over £200,000 over the past 10 years, countless production hours, and saved so much hassle by preventing remedial works,”

“We change the filter elements twice a year, and it even comes with a little bag so you don’t get your hands dirty. And Tris UK works out how often we need to change the filter elements, so effort from us is minimal.”