One‑Man Maintenance: Keeping Maritime Pride Eggs’ Grading Line Running Smoothly

At 7 a.m., operators at Maritime Pride Eggs in Amherst, NS, powered up the egg‑grading line. Three minutes later the loader, which picks up 60 eggs at a time and feeds them into the sorter, began dropping eggs. Operators immediately shut down the machine.

Maintenance supervisor Mike Eagles, the plant’s sole technician, investigated the fault. He traced the issue to a worn keyway, misaligned holes, and a drop in the vacuum pressure that powers the soft suction cups.

It may seem odd that a 35,000‑sq‑ft facility that grades 550,000‑600,000 eggs daily operates with a single maintenance person, but the grading line is only five years old.

Breakdowns are infrequent, and Eagles can address most problems in‑house. “I can take care of any mechanical equipment and I do MIG, TIG and stick welding,” he says. He joined Maritime Pride Eggs in 2006 after a decade at Venture Lighting in Amherst.

The grading process relies on straightforward equipment: a tray washer, a lift for placing eggs at the line’s front, a loader, an egg washer, conveyors, and a box maker.

Operators grease the tray washer bearings every couple of days and can replace any broken rods that hold the trays. Eagles performs monthly preventive maintenance on the box maker, conveyors, and tray washer—blowing down the equipment, oiling moving parts, greasing, and checking bearing plates.

The loader is complex but generally reliable. Eagles occasionally shuts it down briefly to replace a faulty suction cup—a task that takes about 25 seconds. This summer, bearing play caused the loader to act up; Eagles temporarily reduced the processing speed to 100,000 eggs per hour until new bearings arrived and scheduled downtime for the repair.

Strong detergents in the egg washer have corroded the steel in its recirculation pumps. In his well‑equipped shop, Eagles drills oversized holes, taps them, installs beefier bolts, and then repaints the pumps.

He shares a lesson from the egg washer: “The previous operator bought cheap bearings that only lasted three months because of the heavy water exposure. When I replaced them and asked the supplier for a higher‑grade pair—just five dollars more—we now have bearings that last six months and counting.”

At the heart of the production line sits the Omni 330 sorter from Holland‑based Moba. This sophisticated machine combines egg inspection, crack detection, ultraviolet disinfection, weighing, and size‑based sorting for packing.

Because the sorter is as much a computer as a mechanical system, Moba’s online technicians provide most of the service. “Moba can log in, take over the computer, and guide us,” Eagles says. He flew to Holland in 2007 for an entry‑level service course. Moba technicians praise his mechanical work, but note that more technical skill on the grader is needed.

Eagles is eager to deepen his knowledge. “I’ll likely return next spring for an advanced course,” he says. In the meantime, Moba technicians walk him through electronic issues, sometimes without taking over the computer.

Beyond maintenance, Eagles unloads trucks, moves them around the yard, works the line, and drives the pallet jack. With 32 employees—including seven company truck drivers—he often covers for absent staff.

Recognizing future demands as equipment ages, Eagles and plant manager Dwayne Ogilvie have developed a strategy. In 2008 they had no spare parts; now they hold $50,000‑$60,000 worth of spares, mainly electronic components like circuit boards.

The grading station operates Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with no annual shutdown, making it hard to schedule longer maintenance tasks such as a full bearing swap that requires a day off production.

Ogilvie plans to test a new schedule: in October they will run four 10‑hour days, freeing a day each week for maintenance.

Maritime Pride Eggs serves a region stretching from St. Stephen north to Fredericton, east to Newcastle, south to Amherst, and the Truro and Halifax markets. They source eggs from ten farms for grading and deliver up to one million dozen eggs per month to major chains.

The plant currently operates at about 60 % capacity. As usage climbs, Eagles will undoubtedly face an even busier workload.

MRO Carroll McCormick, senior contributing editor, is based in Montreal. He is the recipient of several awards for his articles in Machinery & Equipment MRO.

Find the original article on the MRO website.