Success Story
Industry: Power Generation
Application: Centrifugal Pump
Cost Savings: € 28 970
Introduction
A large energy producer (electricity + heats) faced frequent failures on their water recirculation centrifugal pumps. NSK jointly with the local distributor performed a bearing failure investigation on site. The result showed that the lubrication of the pump bearings as the source of repeated failures. NSK proposed to change the bearing type over to a sealed for life greased bearing featuring DDU seals and high temperature grease. This gave significant improvement in performance reducing maintenance costs.
- Centrifugal Pump
- Deep Groove Ball Bearings with DDU seals
Key Facts
- Energy producer – water recirculation centrifugal pumps
- Frequently failures due to poor lubrication
- NSK Solution: DDU Sealed Deep Groove Ball Bearings
- A trial was performed on 3 out of 20 pumps without any failures for more than 6 months
- After changing to the NSK solution on all pumps no failure occurred witin a period 12 months
- Significant cost savings due to failure-free running but also due to reduced material and maintenance cost
Value Proposals
- Repeated failures on the pumps were recognised. The customer requested the local distributor to check the possibility to improve the lifetime of the bearings.
- NSK and the local distributor performed a bearing analysis on site and concluded that the failure occured due to lack of lubrication. Considering the age of the equipment and the poor condition of the seals, a design modification to avoid the oil leaks was not considered.
- Instead NSK proposed to use Deep Groove Ball Bearings with DDU seals and a high temperature grease.
- A trial was performed on 3 pumps and the bearings have been monitored for 6 months without any failures.
- After changing to NSK Deep Groove Ball Bearings with DDU seals and a high temperature grease on all pumps no failure occurred within a period of 12 months period.
Product Features
- High Quality Steel - Ultra clean steel to extend bearing life by up to 80%
- Super Finished Raceways – Specially honed to minimise noise, improves lubricant distribution and life
- Patented Seals – Provide resistance to contamination in the toughest environments, standard seal material is nitrile rubber
- Pressed Steel Cage - close coined cage pockets and tightly controlled clearances reduce friction and ensure even distribution of lubricant. The pressed steel cages also have the advantage of high temperature resistance.
- Grease Technology - High temperature resistance and speed capability with good resistance to water and contamination
Cost Saving Breakdown
Before | Cost p.a. | NSK Solution | Cost p.a. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bearing Costs: Cost of bearings used before | € 1,550 | Bearing Costs: DGBB bearings with DDU seals | € 480 | |
Lubrication Costs: Oil replenishment costs | € 1,700 | Lubrication Costs: Oil replenishment costs | € 0 | |
Engineering Costs: Maintenance costs | € 7,200 | Engineering Costs: Maintenance costs | € 0 | |
Costs of lost production: Downtime costs | € 19,000 | Costs of lost production: No downtime costs | € 0 | |
Total Costs | € 29 450 | € 480 |
Reference:SS-E-5012
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