HEMARAJ SARABURI, THAILAND —Bühler opened its newest customer service and roll refurbishment center in October in Thailand. Bühler’s 1,800-square-meter facility offers a range of local services for its customers.

“Being close to our clientele is essential to offer tailor-made customer and engineering services, along the whole lifecycle management of our plants and equipment,” said Mark Ledson, managing director, Bühler (Thailand) Ltd.

The new center is located in the Hemaraj Saraburi Industrial Land, in the province Saraburi, and employs over 30 service technicians and customer service managers. Services range from roll refluting for roller mills, production of new fluted rolls and an applications area, where customer trials can take place on optical sorters. Furthermore, there are ejector repair facilities and a comprehensive stock of spare parts in order to support customers more efficiently.
 
On Oct. 1, the center was opened in the presence of Swiss Ambassador Ivo Sieber, who congratulated Bühler on the successful opening ceremony.

“Bühler has established, over the years, very strong partnerships with its customers,” said Sieber. “I am impressed by its professionalism and wish Bühler continued success with its operations here in Thailand.”

More than 40 customers, representing a cross section of industries – rice, flour, snacks, feed, die casting, inks and paint production – came to the opening ceremony to see the newest services and latest technologies. This included optical sorting demonstrations, automated packing machines, ejector repair, simulation of full automation control, demonstrations of Bühler’s RollDetect service and the grinding and fluting of rolls.

“Customers showed a lot of interest in our demonstrations, especially our RollDetect service, which now allows mills to be run at maximum efficiency and roll changes to be managed in line with plant maintenance scheduling,” said Ledson. “By providing local services and specialist knowledge, we can support our customers to further reduce maintenance costs as well as downtime while boosting efficiency. A well maintained mill, for instance, achieves up to two percent higher yield with significantly less energy consumption.”

The customer service center in Thailand further expands Bühler’s unique global service network. Now with 82 service stations, Bühler said it takes another step towards its goal of 100 service stations worldwide, ensuring proximity to its customers.