The "Norwell Advantage"

Scheduled Maintenance Fact Sheet

What can we do on a scheduled maintenance visit?

A) Scheduled Maintenance Checklist

This checklist covers all areas of your milking system including milk lines, pulsation systems, receiver groups, milk units, vacuum pumps, oil reclaimers, vacuum regulators etc. While some items such as line slope and pipeline hangers only require inspection, many rubber and plastic parts are replaced if there are any signs of wear and/or inking. We also recommend that all milk and vacuum hoses are replaced during the annual service. Your vacuum pump is the heart of your milking system and proper vacuum levels are crucial to the quality of any milking system. Therefore all vacuum pumps are flushed and the pump performance is checked by measuring the C.F.M. air flow.

All motor amperages are also checked and compared to the rated motor amps for reference.

For Milking parlors there are checklists included for parlour stalls, air compressors, and crowd gates.

Your milk cooler and tank wash system is often a neglected piece of equipment, therefore we also inspect and service your tank wash system. For refrigeration issues, please call our Cooler Service Department.

B) System Wash Analysis

This is a recent addition to our scheduled maintenance program. This was added because of the D.F.O. requirement to have your chemical usage chart updated an annual basis. In order to accurately fill this chart out, a complete wash analysis must be done in which all details of your washing system are checked and recorded. This includes the amount of water used, water temperatures, amount of chemical usage, strength of wash solutions etc. Also included in a wash analysis is an inspection and service of your automatic pipeline washer.

C) N.M.C. Vacuum System Analysis

N.M.C. stands for National Mastitis Council. This is an international, independent organization which sets standards and guidelines, based on research, for the Dairy Industry. The NMC test is an in-depth analysis of vacuum air flow, regulator performance, system reserves and is performed on all new and upgraded installations.

At the present an N.M.C. analysis is only performed on new systems startups, for trouble-shooting specific problems or if requested. It currently is not part of a regular scheduled maintenance.

Should you be on an Annual or Semi-annual schedule?

For the average milking herd a scheduled annual service is sufficient in meeting the maintenance requirements of

most milking equipment. However as herd sizes increase, so do milking times and demands on milking equipment. A semi-annual schedule may be required to meet the maintenance requirements for equipment with longer daily running times. A semi-annual maintenance should also be considered for any dairy that is milking 3x because of the reduced time available in performing the maintenance. Another advantage of a semi-annual service is the cost per service is reduced.

Who will do your Scheduled Maintenance?

A scheduled maintenance technician is not considered an entry level position; therefore all our service technicians have many years of experience in servicing and installing dairy equipment. Training and information is provided by manufacturers and suppliers on a regular basis.

What will it cost?

Due to the variety of milking systems and parts required, our scheduled maintenance is billed on a time and material basis and can vary considerably with the size of system being serviced. Past experience has proven that regular annual services will have a lower cost per service as opposed to skipping several years.

If you would prefer to have a fixed rate service contract, we would be willing to negotiate one for your operations individual needs.

Our Guarantee

We stand behind our work. Every effort is made by our servicemen to ensure that all equipment is functioning properly before leaving your farm. However, performing maintenance requires disassembly of many components of your system and from time to time leaks or connection problems may develop in a day or two following your service. If any problems develop as a direct result of your scheduled maintenance we will make necessary repairs at no charge.