Durable Equipment and Parts Give You a Better Product and Better Return on Investment
During my frequent visits to food and feed plants in Latin America, I often encounter under-performing extruders due to the replacement of factory parts with locally-made, copied parts. More times than not, the plant may be trying to cut down on maintenance costs or the factory-made, proper parts are not locally available.
Unfortunately, buying a knockoff part for an extruder is very similar to buying a knockoff part for a vehicle. It may work in the short term to varying results, but the best way to guarantee peak performance and equipment longevity is to use original factory parts.
If a knockoff is not made correctly or with the same materials, it can cause irreversible damage to equipment and several days of downtime. Downtime means losing money due to lack of production, so it is very important to make sure this does not occur. Not to mention with Fedex, UPS and DHL, international parts orders take only a matter of days to arrive. In the long run, the consequences of using copied, locally-made parts need to be understood.
At a recent Pet and Aquatic Feed Clinic held in Des Moines, Iowa, I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Bernal Rojas, Director of Alimentos del Valle in Costa Rica, a pet food manufacturer. Mr. Rojas explained to the group of attendees that 35 years ago his company purchased a 2500 extruder to make dog food. The same extruder that was purchased is still running strong today. He also emphasized the importance of buying original parts instead of local copies:
“We replaced our worn out Insta-Pro parts with brand new, inexpensive local parts. The product coming out of the extruder was worse with the new local parts than with the old, worn out Insta-Pro parts, so we had to reinstall the old parts until we could order some original parts from the factory.”
In the end, the wise decision is to buy replacement parts that come from wherever the equipment was purchased, if at all possible. In order to get the most out of each extruder while producing the best possible product, using factory-made parts is the best option. Taking into account the longevity of the Insta-Pro parts, at the end of the day the operational cost per hour is the same or less than using local knockoffs.
