The cheapest downtime is the stoppage you never have, because the part was already on the shelf. Most beverage lines — fillers, labellers, wrap-around packers — share the same families of wear parts, and a modest on-site store covering those families prevents the majority of unplanned stops. The exact quantities depend on your line speed and how many machines share a type, so treat the list below as the families to stock, not the numbers to order.
Seals and O-rings
Seals are the highest-turnover family on any line. Filler valve seals, pneumatic cylinder seals and the O-rings at every pressurized joint fail first and fail often. Keep a set per machine family, plus the mating springs where the design uses them — a new seal against a tired spring still leaks.
Bearings
Roller bearings on carousels, star-wheel drives and conveyor turns wear quietly and fail loudly. Keep the sizes that run the most revolutions: drive bearings first, then the guide and transfer bearings that see side load.
Belts and chains
Infeed and outfeed belts, toothed belts on drives, and the conveyor chains themselves. A slipping belt or stretched chain shows up as timing drift before it shows up as a jam. Keep the tensioner pulleys and a length of chain with them, because a worn belt and a worn pulley are best changed together.
Guides, star wheels and wear strips
The parts that touch the bottle — guide rails, star wheels, cam discs, wear strips — wear slowly and cause drift long before they cause a stop. A small stock of the contact parts pays for itself the first time an operator stops re-timing a head every shift.
Fasteners and small parts
Cap screws, washers, circlips and the small fittings that hold the above in place. These are cheap, easy to lose during a changeover, and maddening to wait a day for. A sorted bin of the common sizes is the single highest-return item on the shelf.
Two rules that make the shelf work
First, stock by the reference number in your machine’s spare-part book, not by a description someone remembers — the number is the only thing that defines the shape and size. Second, refresh against the book each year, because numbers get superseded and a shelf of retired numbers is a shelf of nothing.
Not sure which number fits a position? Send us the book entry — we confirm the part and reply with a quotation within one business day.
All brand names, trademarks, and model numbers mentioned on this website are the property of their respective owners. Their use is for identification and reference purposes only. JP Machinery supplies compatible spare parts and is not an authorized distributor or representative of KRONES, SIDEL, KHS, SACMI, or AROL.