Separators Blog

Unexpected centrifuge breakdowns can quickly halt production and blow up your budget. One day, everything’s running smoothly, and the next, you're facing costly emergency repairs.

The good news? With proper planning based on your equipment’s age, usage, and service history, most centrifuge repair costs are predictable or preventable.

You may be running centrifuges every day, but do you know how they really work? Understanding the parts that make up your centrifuge is key to learning how they operate and, in turn, will help you stop problems before they become shutdowns.

Think of this as your centrifuge anatomy lesson — a practical guide to the parts that keep your separator spinning.

At Separators, we don't just care about centrifuge maintenance — we live and breathe it. As North America's largest independent service technician organization for Alfa Laval, Tetra Pak, and Westfalia high-speed disc centrifuges, we're all about meeting your needs head-on, whether they're routine or unexpected.

From problematic bowl bottoms to pesky bowl components, you probably know the headaches of dealing with centrifuge issues that are on the fritz all too well. 

It’s no secret that regular centrifuge maintenance minimizes production downtime, extends the life of your equipment, and saves your team a lot of headaches (and money) in the long run.

Recently, a large dairy plant experienced the nightmare scenario of a catastrophic failure when the bowl cracked on one of their plant’s MSD300 centrifuges. 

What was the longest wait time you've been given when facing an equipment emergency? 

We often hear about plants waiting more than a week to get a technician out to address an issue — and sometimes, the issue has put the plant at a standstill (or, at best, a significantly decreased production volume).

That's why we make it a priority to provide fast, quality service to our customers with our drop-of-a-hat centrifuge repair.

While minor and major service visits can help keep your centrifuge in good working condition, wear and tear will require you to send in your bowl and other essential components for more extensive service over time.

Centrifuges are massive, powerful machines. While these machines operate in a simple, consistent manner, the moment a centrifuge bowl becomes unbalanced, the centrifuge quickly becomes one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment on your production floor.

Unexpected downtime means lost revenue (and usually lost product). So knowing how to troubleshoot when your centrifuge experiences issues is critical to getting back up and running to meet your production volume goals.