Success Story
Industry: Food & Beverage
Application: Contherm Scraper Unit
Cost Savings: € 96 013
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 this problem and found that and hard contaminants were entering the bearing causing failure. They proposed a trial with NSK Molded-Oil bearings which resulted in immediate improvement and significant lifetime extension.
- Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger Unit
- Molded-Oil Bearings
Key Facts
- Frequent bearing failure occuring every 8 weeks across 5 machines
- Approximately 60 man hours needed to replace failed bearings annually
- Substantial machine down time, 5 hours per bearing change
- NSK solution, Molded-Oil Deep Groove Ball Bearings
- Significant lifetime improvement resulting in no failures over a 3 year period
- Productivity improvement
- Large annual cost saving achieved
Value Proposals
- Following repeated and costly failures the customer requested a solution to their problem on the Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger Units
- A failed bearing analysis determined that the failures were due to water and hard particle ingress resulting in lubrication breakdown
- A trial 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 and a significant annual cost saving
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: Previously used Ball Bearings | € 300 | Bearing Costs: NSK Molded-Oil Deep Groove Ball Bearings | € 225 | |
| Costs of lost production: 12 failures à 5 hours downtime: 60hrs à 1.250€/hour | € 75.000 | Costs of lost production: No downtime | € 0 | |
| Engineering Costs: 12 failures à 5 hours maintenance: 60hrs à 62,5 €/hour |
€ 3.750 | Engineering Costs: No labour costs | € 0 | |
| Engineering Costs: Mechanical Seals x 12 | € 18.750 | Engineering Costs: Mechanical Seals x 1 | € 1.562 | |
| Total Costs | € 97 800 | € 1 787 | ||
Reference:SS-E-2053
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