Success Story
Industry: Food & Beverage
Application: Contherm Scraper Unit
Cost Savings: $102,322
Introduction
A large producer of fish products was experiencing repeated failures on their Scraped Surface Heat Exchangers. They were changing bearings every 8 weeks which involved high maintenance costs and a lengthy machine down time. NSK investigated and determined that hard contaminants were entering the bearing causing failure. They proposed a testing of NSK Molded-Oil bearings which resulted in immediate improvement and significant increase in beairng life.
- Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger Unit
- Molded-Oil Bearings
Key Facts
- Frequent bearing failures occured every 8 weeks on 5 machines
- Approximately 60 man hours annually were needed to replace failed bearings
- Substantial machine down time, 5 hours per bearing change
- NSK solution, Molded-Oil Deep Groove Ball Bearings
- Significant bearing life improvement resulting in no failures over a 3 year period
- Productivity improvement
Value Proposals
- Following repeated and costly failures the customer required a solution to their problem
- A failed bearing analysis determined that the failures were due to water and hard particle ingress resulting in lubrication breakdown
- A test was proposed using NSK Molded-Oil Deep Groove Ball Bearings which proved to be successful with life being extended to over 3 years
- Molded-Oil bearings were fitted to all machines resulting in a reduction in machine down time and maintenance cost
Product Features
- Available for high speed applications
- Available in ball bearing, spherical roller bearing and tapered roller bearings types
- Rust-proof - Stainless steel for corrosive environments
- Grease-free property with no oil refilling keeps operating environments clean
- Operating life more than twice as long as grease lubrication, in water or dust contaminated environments
- Contact-seal type available in standard inventory for ball bearings
- Achieves extended maintenance-free performance as Molded Oil provides a continuous supply of lubricant
Cost Saving Breakdown
| Before | Cost p.a. | NSK Solution | Cost p.a. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bearing Costs: Bearing Replacement: Ball Bearings | $320 | Bearing Costs: Bearing Replacement: NSK Molded-Oil Deep Groove Ball Bearings | $240 | |
| Costs of lost production: Downtime: 12 failures @ 5 hours each: 60hrs @ $1,332/hour | $79,920 | Costs of lost production: Downtime: none | $0 | |
| Engineering Costs: Maintenance: 12 failures@5 hours each= 60hrs @ $67/hour | $3,997 | Engineering Costs: Maintenance: none | $0 | |
| Engineering Costs: Mechanical Seals x 12 | $19,990 | Engineering Costs: Mechanical Seals x 1 | $1,665 | |
| Total Costs | $104,227 | $1,905 | ||
Reference:SS-E-2053
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