Walkers Snack Foods have long recognised the benefits associated with Condition Based Maintenance and for this reason has been implementing Condition Monitoring for a number of years.
Over a period of years two major gearboxes had failed catastrophically at one particular Walkers site. In each case the internal damage was so complete that there were no clues as to the root cause of the failures. In addition to the extensive damage, the unexpectedness of the failure resulted in lost production time and a serious economic impact on operations.
To address this, periodic measurements were initiated using the MHC-Memo instrument when a replacement extruder gearbox was installed in January 2003. The trend of Distress
Holroyd Instruments Ltd draw upon AE experience stretching all the way back to 1974 when Trevor Holroyd (the founder of the company) started his research in this field in the prestigious Advanced Research Labs of Rolls Royce. Both fundamental research and development of Airline and Shop-Floor applications continued until in 1991 he left Rolls-Royce and set up Holroyd Instruments. 
Thermal imaging has evolved into one of the most valuable diagnostic tools for Predictive Maintenance. By detecting anomalies often invisible to the naked eye, thermography allows corrective action to be taken before costly system failures occur. 
