Overview
Avícola Sofía Ltda, a major food processing facility in Bolivia, experienced rising temperatures, darkening oil, and shortened oil drain intervals on two Atlas Copco compressors. These issues caused repeated production delays and higher operating costs. Oil analysis revealed critical MPC levels of 53 and 29, confirming severe varnish contamination.
Fluitec’s DECON was added at a 3% treatment rate to both compressors. Within one hour, MPC levels dropped sharply and temperatures declined. After one week of operation, MPC values stabilized at 12 and 7. Compressor performance was fully restored, production stoppages were eliminated, and the facility achieved long-term operational and sustainability benefits.
Problem
At the Avícola Sofía Ltda company they began noticing that two of their compressors were not working as efficiently as before. The oil for these compressors became dark very quickly, the temperatures on the system began to increase quite rapidly and this oil had to be changed at shorter intervals. This caused a lot of delays in production and increased expenses related to these stoppages. MPC tests were performed for both compressors which resulted in values of 53 and 29 respectively.
Solution
Fluitec’s DECON was added to these compressors to address the underlying issue of varnish. The MPC tests were done one hour after DECON was added to the system and again after being in operation for one week.
Results
After a 3% treatment of DECON was added to the sump, immediately, the temperatures declined. After one hour of DECON being added to the system, the MPC levels decreased drastically from 53 to 22 and from 29 to 8 respectively. After being in the system for one week, the values fell even further from 53 to 22 to 12 and from 29 to 8 to 7 respectively.
The production lines are no longer stopped due to these changes in the oil, and they are now able to fully utilize their compressors.