Alfa Laval service agreement helps an animal vaccine producer in China save 2 million CNY

An urgent response saves the day

For biopharmaceuticals, every batch is precious. From culturing to harvest, you depend on the smooth performance of your equipment. With an Alfa Laval service agreement, manufacturers can make sure that critical equipment get regular inspection and maintenance from specialized service engineers. But they can also get the assurance of rapid and efficient emergency support – at all hours, every day of the year.

In northern China, a biopharmaceutical company producing vaccines from mammalian cell cultures encountered a potentially disastrous situation. Late one Sunday night, when working on a cell culture ready for harvesting, the customer found that the disc stack separator would not start. The customer did not know how to fix the malfunction and contacted Alfa Laval.

Working against the clock

With a batch worth 2 000 000 CNY and only a narrow time window to complete the harvest, the race was on to find a solution. The team immediately contacted Alfa Laval and asked for help. The previous year the company had signed a five-year service agreement with Alfa Laval, including emergency response services. This enabled the Alfa Laval service organization to act swiftly and resolutely.

Though it was late in the weekend, the national Alfa Laval service network was notified and could utilize the service capabilities reserved for customers with service agreements. Service engineers were at the site and attending to the separator within hours. The engineers managed to solve the problem the same night, enabling successful harvesting of the valuable cell culture. Finding that the malfunction had been due to human error, the service engineers also trained the customer in operating the equipment, to help avoid future mistakes. Thanks to a comprehensive service agreement, Alfa Laval was able to do its utmost to aid a customer in urgent need.