Mechanical Process Control for Reducing Butter-Oil Defects in Industrial Production

This research offers a numerical evaluation of the dependability and availability of a serial butter-oil production line from a mechanical engineering standpoint. The line consists of essential rotating and fluid-handling subsystems—raw-milk receiving pumps, cream separators, heat exchangers, mechanical agitators, homogenizers, gearboxes, and conveying components—whose mechanical integrity significantly influences throughput and quality. We describe the production train with continuous-time Markov chains (CTMCs) derived from a reliability block diagram (RBD) illustrating series dependencies and maintenance strategies. Component-level failure (λ) and repair (μ) rates, obtained from realistic duty cycles and mechanical failure modes (bearing wear, seal leakage, misalignment, lubrication starvation, cavitation, fouling, and thermo mechanical fatigue), are transmitted to system-level metrics through state-transition analysis. Numerical simulations provide mean time between failures (MTBF), mean time to repair (MTTR), and steady-state availability for the whole system and for mechanically critical subsystems (e.g., pump-valve trains and homogenization units). Sensitivity studies pinpoint availability constraints and prioritize mechanical parameters—bearing L10 life, seal MTBF, lubricant change interval, alignment tolerance, and cooling-water ΔT—based on their effect on throughput reduction. The findings indicate that modest enhancements in repair logistics for high-criticality assets (such as the installation of cartridge seals and quick-release couplings on feed pumps) may surpass significant MTBF reductions in low-criticality components. We further illustrate that the integration of mechanical condition monitoring (vibration and temperature trending) with SPC-based run charts and control limits stabilizes critical mechanical variables (overall vibration, RMS acceleration, and discharge pressure ripple), thereby diminishing special-cause variation and unplanned downtime. The study concludes with maintenance strategies designed for mechanical assets, including spares pooling for common failure categories, precision alignment, optimized lubrication practices, and threshold-based condition-directed overhauls, resulting in quantifiable improvements in line availability and energy efficiency while maintaining butter-oil quality standards.