Spares are an essential part of industrial refrigeration aftercare. When components break or develop faults, it is vital that replacement parts are sourced and fitted as soon as possible, to minimise downtime and disruption.

A highly responsive and reliable spares service team can help engineers get plants back up and running quickly following a faults breakdown. This fast response can potentially save plant operators thousands of pounds in costly downtime.

Spares services are an important part of Star Refrigeration’s aftercare support to customers in sectors including food production, temperature controlled storage, pharmaceutical, IT, process cooling and ice rinks. Each of Star’s nine branches across the UK has in-house resource to locate relevant spares, working alongside the maintenance contract and service teams.

A large proportion of the spare requests undertaken by the service teams is reactive. Service work generates a significant demand for replacement parts, as customers call on Star to undertake equipment overhauls or deal with faults and breakdowns.

Star’s maintenance team also provides the service teams with a regular flow of work. They are regularly called upon to assess plant components as part of Star’s proactive aftercare programmes.

Each of Star’s nine UK branches has access to a vast stock of refrigeration and HVAC plant components. These range from simple electrical consumables such as fuses and bulbs, to major components including pumps, compressors and evaporators.

As the UK’s largest industrial refrigeration engineering company, Star has the buying power and approval to purchase from leading suppliers of high quality components. Replacement parts for plants manufactured by Star are straightforward to source, as the company maintains strong links with the original suppliers.

Star’s Spares team is dedicated to sourcing and providing replacement parts for all brands of industrial refrigeration plant. There is an overriding commitment to supply components specified by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for every customer wherever possible.

Where no OEM specification is available, Star has the technical engineering knowledge to identify and source the right component for the job. Similarly, if an OEM part has become obsolete, the Spares team will specify and source the best alternative.

Refrigeration technology is constantly evolving and when an industrial refrigeration plant reaches an age in excess of 20 years it is likely that some components will become obsolete. Star maintains close relationships with suppliers and can advise customers in advance if certain components are no longer being manufactured. Engineers may also recommend a component overhaul on an ageing plant to remove obsolete parts and help avoid future issues.

Critical spares now play a key role in many maintenance contracts. Star undertake full plant evaluations and recommend lists of critical components to keep in stock. Carrying critical spares is a central part of planned, preventative maintenance. This approach can help prevent plant breakdowns and minimise disruption, saving operators thousands of pounds in production downtime.

A further assessment can be undertaken by the Star team to identify plant components that are classed as a single point of failure. These have the potential to stop and entire system from operating. These points may include a single pump supplying cooling to an entire distribution network or high wear components in use 24/7, such as control valves or shaft seal. If a single point of failure is identified, it is recommended that operators hold critical spares to minimise downtime should a breakdown occur.

Over time, the majority of refrigeration plants operate over and above their original capacity due to an increase in production levels or throughput. Where this is the case, operators should seriously consider keeping spares as part of a contingency plan. A relatively small investment in critical components could help keep the plant in production and represent a significant cost saving.

This proactive and predictive approach to plant aftercare is central to Star’s service. Engineers are dedicated to keeping the plant running and extending the life of the system. Through the supply of quality components we ensure optimal operation and resilience, helping customers to maximise uptime and reduce costs.