Not to be sneezed at

For the majority of people, planning for a toilet tissue emergency requires little more than an addition to the shopping list or a trip to the local supermarket. But for Pirtek Tyne and Wear customer SCA Hygiene Products, planning is on a far grander scale. Based in Prudhoe in the Northumberland countryside, the company is one of the UK’s largest producers of tissue products, and its Prudhoe Mill facility utilises the unique and highly advanced Through-Air-Drying technology to produce particularly soft toilet tissues such as Double Velvet and Quilted Velvet.

Key Challenges
The company recently scheduled a programme of planned maintenance and, having been a Pirtek customer for some 10 years, a call went in to the Tyne and Wear Centre to supply a wide range of steam hoses and assemblies for the facility’s pulping process. But that call came with a number of key challenges, as Pirtek Tyne and Wear’s Kevin Monaghan explains.

“We originally quoted to undertake this work in 2004 and we were determined to provide similar costings even though the price of steel has escalated in the five years since,” he says. “In addition, this hose replacement and installation programme was extremely time-sensitive. We had a specific window of opportunity in which to carry out the work so there was absolutely no room for error.”

Sheer Scale
However, the biggest single challenge, aside from the logistics, was the scale of the works. The contract called for the replacement of 156 R1AT hoses with MSHA covers and bespoke stainless steel fittings. “Altogether, that equated to more than 400 metres of hose and 156 individual assemblies that had to be fitted in a single 18 hour period. We allocated a three-man engineering team to the job comprising MSSTs Graeme Lowery, Ant Whillis and Graham Murray, overseen by our Centre Manager Andy Keeling,” Monaghan continues. “The hoses, fittings and ferrules arrived from Pirtek’s part despatch facility seven days in advance, with the clamps arriving on the day of installation which had us all sweating a bit. But the whole job was completed on time and Eddie Brewer, SCA’s engineering team leader, was absolutely delighted with the outcome.”
“The lads did a great job,” concludes Eddie Brewer. “They’re a credit to Pirtek Tyne and Wear."