Essential
Single-shift operations
- One planned maintenance visit a year
- Telephone and remote diagnostic support in working hours
- Priority on spares
- Discounted call-out rates
UK service and support
Service and support from Poole
Commissioning, calibration, maintenance, spares and breakdown response for autoclaves and ovens across the UK and Europe, including equipment built by other manufacturers.
Services
Keeping equipment in specification
Installation and commissioning
Site survey, foundations and civil interface, mechanical and electrical installation, then commissioning by engineers who know the design. Safety functions are proved, witnessed and documented before handover.
Calibration and thermal surveys
AMS2750 temperature uniformity surveys, system accuracy tests and instrument calibration to a traceable standard, reported in a format built for Nadcap and customer audits.
Planned maintenance
Scheduled inspection of the pressure envelope, door interlocks, seals, drives, fans, heating plant and safety systems, with a written condition report and a forecast of what needs replacing in the next twelve months.
Retrofits and upgrades
New controls and instrumentation without touching the pressure envelope, usually inside a planned shutdown, on ASC equipment or anyone else's.
CFD and thermal analysis
Computational fluid dynamics on new designs and on equipment in service. When a machine will not hold uniformity with a new tool, the model usually shows why before anyone books a shutdown.
24/7 breakdown response
Secure remote access means most faults are diagnosed before an engineer leaves the office, and many are fixed without one travelling at all.
Upgrading controls on an older machine? See control system retrofits.
Support agreements
Three levels of cover
Cover is priced on the equipment, its duty and what downtime costs you, not on a per-visit basis.
Assured
Production under customer audit
- Two planned maintenance visits a year
- Annual AMS2750 survey and calibration
- Guaranteed response times
- Extended remote support hours
- Agreed spares holding
Critical
When a stopped autoclave stops the line
- 24/7 cover with contracted on-site response
- Quarterly inspection
- Full calibration programme
- Critical spares consigned to your site
- Annual obsolescence review
Spare parts
Critical spares held in the UK
We hold critical spares in the UK for ASC equipment and for the other manufacturers’ machines we support, with same-day despatch within the UK. If a machine is down, call rather than email: with the serial number, we can usually identify the part from a photograph.
Safety-critical parts are no place to economise. Door interlock components, relief devices and over-temperature instruments should be replaced with specified parts and function-tested afterwards. We will tell you when a cheaper equivalent is genuinely acceptable, and when it is not.
- Door seals, clamps and interlock components
- Thermocouples, looms and vacuum transducers
- Fan bearings, drives and motor assemblies
- Contactors, control cards and HMI hardware
- Relief valves and safety-critical instrumentation
Troubleshooting
Common faults, and where to look first
The faults our service desk hears most often, with the diagnosis we would walk you through on the phone. If in doubt, call.
Sensor readings fluctuate
Almost always an earthing or screening issue rather than a failed sensor. Check that the thermocouple screen is earthed at one end only, that the loom is not routed alongside a drive cable, and that the vessel has a sound earth bond. Swapping the sensor first is the common mistake.
The autoclave will not start
Work through the start permissives in order: door fully closed and locked, interlock proved, cooling water available, air or nitrogen pressure present, no standing alarm, and a recipe selected and approved. CPC lists the blocking permissive on the start screen.
A thermocouple reads 2,000 °C
An open circuit in nearly every case: a broken conductor, a loose terminal or a disconnected plug in the charge. The instrument is reporting an open input, not a real temperature. Check the joint at the vessel wall first.
The cooling tank overflowed
Usually a failed level control, or a heat exchanger leak putting process water into the tank. Isolate it and establish which. Do not simply drain and restart: a leaking exchanger will do it again mid-cycle.
The burner will not ignite
Check the gas supply and isolation valve, flame detector cleanliness, purge completion and the ignition transformer. Investigate repeated lockouts rather than resetting them: a burner that needs three attempts is telling you something.
Cooling is slow at maximum settings
Check cooling water flow and inlet temperature first, then exchanger fouling, then whether the modulating valve is actually stroking. On hot days an undersized cooling circuit shows up here before anywhere else.
The autoclave takes a long time to start a cycle
Typically the pre-run vacuum integrity check finding a marginal port and retrying. That is the system doing its job: check the port report rather than bypassing the check.
Contact
Equipment down?
Call the Poole office at any time for a stopped machine, or send a service request and an engineer will reply within one working day.