Sensus saves money with smart butterfly valves

Failures due to breakdowns and leaks

"The butterfly valves there often failed or suffered leaks," says Martin Geuke, Sensus purchasing manager. "We carried out various activities that reduced the number of faults. But our engineers still had to work regularly to get things working again. And we couldn't operate at full capacity during that time."
 

Far less unexpected maintenance

Sensus asked three regular suppliers to help it find a solution to prevent breakdowns and failures. "We set the same tough conditions for all three: we wanted valves that could give us operational reliability, that were guaranteed to last ten years," says Geuke. "So that we would have much less unexpected maintenance and the plant could just keep running."
 

800,000 less in unforeseen maintenance costs and breakdowns

The new butterfly valves have now been installed in one of the four lines of the Demi plant. "It turns out that ERIKS supplied the right valves. There are no malfunctions and no leaks. The people at ERIKS handled it well and helped us enormously." This is also reflected in the expected savings: Over the next ten years, Sensus will spend around EUR 800,000 less on unforeseen mechanic costs and costs due to operational downtime, or EUR 80,000 a year.

Sensus's Inulin factory in Roosendaal

Ron van der Velden (L) and Mark de Jong of ERIKS.

Pro-actively working together on a successful solution

The solution that ERIKS developed especially for Sensus was chosen. "ERIKS simply understood our question best," says Geuke. "It was more than giving a ten-year warranty on your product; it was proactively working with us to find a good solution to the problem."

We were naturally keen to help optimise the process," says Ron van der Velden of ERIKS, a supplier to Sensus since 1999. First, ERIKS specialists investigated which butterfly valves were most suitable for Sensus's demi-plant. ERIKS and Sensus then carried out extensive tests for two months to ensure that the butterfly valves worked properly and without leakage. "We now have a valve that we know will work without any problems for ten years, or 10,000 switching operations."

Thinking along

ERIKS specialists will replace the valves in the other three lines step by step over the next few years. "This is a great joint result", says Geuke. "It was nice to see how ERIKS always thought along and selected the right product. We have come a long way in good cooperation."

"It is nice to see that this business unit can run carefree," says Van der Velden of ERIKS. "That is actually worth even more than the ten-year guarantee that we give on the valves: the idea that you, as a manufacturer, can rely on the machines and installations just to keep on running."