Spherical Roller Bearings Bring Reliability to Paper Manufacturer
Paper might not be as tough as steel or cement, but papermaking itself is an extremely intensive activity, involving high temperatures and heavy-duty machinery. To make a success of it, you need component parts you can rely on.
Unfortunately for one paper mill over in the United States of America, the bearings being used in its Nip Roll (a machine which has two or more rolls whose surfaces are pushed together) were failing after just a single year’s worth of service. This caused not just significant maintenance issues, but a substantial amount of lost production time in an industry where efficiency is at an absolute premium.
NSK’s team of expert engineers was brought in to investigate what was going on and, if possible, to provide a solution. Our team carried out a comprehensive Application Review and found that the existing bearing design and set up simply weren’t appropriate to the application. They suggested that the paper mill adopt a special dimension, large size spherical roller bearing from NSK. This bearing, which boasted a brass cage with large rollers for greater load capacity, also offered more durability and improved wear resistance compared to the bearing previously in use. Furthermore, it came with high surface finish to allow it to handle high-speed applications.
After NSK helped the paper mill to install the new bearing, the failures came to an abrupt end. The enhanced clearance, improvements to the shaft and housing fits, and the high quality of the product itself ensured that the company could operate far more reliably and realise significant cost savings.
Manufacturers need to make sure that the component parts in their machines are of the very highest quality
Anton Mozhaev - Sector Manager for Paper
‘In recent years papermaking machines have become more and more productive,’ says NSK’s Sector Manager for Paper, Anton Mozhaev. ‘In order to make the most of those increases in productivity, manufacturers need to make sure that the component parts in their machines are of the very highest quality and consistently reliable.
‘Here at NSK we have drawn upon our years of research and development, as well as our extensive engineering experience, to develop a range of bearings that meet the demands of the industry and can be deployed in all sections of modern papermaking machines. We will continue to work hard to make sure we are the most reliable partner for the papermaking industry.’
The fact that there have been no failures at all since the switch in products means that the paper mill has been able to eliminate all unplanned downtime on its NIP roll, massively reducing maintenance costs and allowing for far more productive operation. All told, this has saved the American company an incredible €600,000 a year, which just goes to show how important it is to choose the right product and set-up for your application. It also demonstrates how vital it is to work with a company and a team which can offer you the very best service and advice.
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