Service case study: The engineers behind Roaches reliabilty
This case study offers a brief look at how our service and calibration segment has grown from being the foundation of our company, into one of the strongest, and most recognisable segments of the Roaches brand.
Introduction
The textile and materials producing industries rely on a huge variety of highly specialised machinery and equipment. From dye baths to finishing machines, testing instruments, and autoclave systems, throughout every process, the accuracy and reliability of these machines are crucial. We manufacture machinery for all of these sectors, and while our equipment is designed for longevity, it’s the Roaches service team that keeps laboratories, Universities, and production environments running at a consistent high quality.
The foundation of Advanced Dyeing Solutions Ltd (our parent company) rose from an industry need for machine servicing. The equipment in the market needed expert care from the right engineers. Our commitment to long-term customer support is just as important to us today, as it has been for the past 25 years.
What our service team does
A Roaches machine service involves far more than simply a check over, it is a full and in depth health assessment of the equipment, and it consists of several key components:
- Mechanical and electrical diagnostics
- Replacing worn parts and correcting hardware issues
- Cleaning, fluid or lubricant replacement
- Preventative action, including recommended upgrades or component refreshes
- Calibration
Calibration is a separate, yet equally critical pillar of our ongoing support. While servicing ensures equipment health, calibration ensures equipment accuracy.
Regular calibration is vital because it verifies that results remain reliable and trusted, and for testing specifically, it helps customers meet standards from numerous international accrediting bodies (such as ISO and AATCC), and it supports audit compliance and ongoing certification requirements.
Roaches calibration includes:
- Diagnostic testing and analysis
- Calibrating mechanical and digital components, such as the Martindale Lissajous
- Producing audit-ready reporting and results
Our approach to both servicing and calibration ensures not only that machines are kept running at peak performance, but also that future issues are actively prevented.
“As a senior service engineer, my team ensures that every installation, calibration, and repair we perform keeps our clients' production lines running and their laboratory testing accurate, ultimately protecting their investment and preventing costly downtime."
Why our customers choose a Roaches service
Roaches engineers bring years of expertise in mechanical engineering, with involvement from the initial machine build, to the maintenance and replacement of components. Many of the machines in customer facilities today have, at some point, been worked on by our service team after installation.
There is a lot for customers to gain from our service, such as:
- Knowledge from engineers who understand both the equipment and the process behind using it
- Faster diagnostics due to shared product expertise
- Worldwide serviceability for all Roaches equipment
- Confidence that their testing or production environment is compliant, safe, and accurate
Another reason that Roaches engineers are so unique in this field, is that they have such a wide range of expertise throughout the industry’s processes. Our engineers have seen many machines, and many iterations of similar products over the years, so even if a customer requires assistance with a non-Roaches product, our engineers are knowledgeable and confident enough to still provide machine servicing.
An insight from Ben
As our primary travelling engineer, Ben has become a familiar face across customer sites throughout Europe and beyond, often supporting multiple machines and systems, and even entire labs in a single visit.
“As a senior service engineer, my team ensures that every installation, calibration, and repair we perform keeps our clients’ production lines running and their laboratory testing accurate, ultimately protecting their investment and preventing costly downtime.
We travel constantly, adapting to different cultures and factory conditions around the world, whether that means troubleshooting under pressure in a chaotic environment or building rapport over a client dinner.
When we cannot be there in person, we rely on a network of local partner engineers, acting as their remote support and quality control to ensure our standards are met everywhere.” – Ben Seanor, Senior Service Engineer
Ben’s broad experience across each of our specialist areas, including autoclaves, makes him a unique asset to our engineering team.
Our extended, global service network
One very important extension from the UK servicing team, includes our Roaches certified international partners. Our partners cover some of the farthest regions away from us here in Leeds, England, where regular travel for us is not feasible multiple times a year.
There are also many nuances in certain regions where our partners have engineers, where it is far suited for us to train them as our own engineers are trained, so that they can cover their own specific region, such as Indonesia or Thailand, and deliver a level of service that is suitable and appropriate for customers in the area.
Liam O’Neill and Ben Seanor with Lazaro, Portugal (Pictured left), Ben with our engineers at Waga Group, Sri Lanka (right).
Conclusion
As our product range integrates more digital features and functions, the work of our service team remains essential. There is still a necessity for bridging knowledge gaps, monitoring performance, and sharing our reputation for reliability with even more engineers around the globe, to ensure our service can be received by everyone, everywhere.
