(September 16, 2011)
A leading Fertiliser Plant and one of SKF South Africa's key customers, was experiencing unsatisfactory bearing performance in a vertical pump assembly at the plant.
"Constant contaminant ingress into the bearing assembly was causing regular failure of the vertical pump assembly and site technicians were conducting weekly inspections to apply grease, check the bearing and replace components - a costly and time consuming exercise that required an urgent, practical solution," explains SKF Segments (Pulp and Paper, Energy and HPI) and Key Accounts Manager, Giscard Lailvaux.
"The SKF Authorised Distributor, Bearing Services Bethal, is responsible for supplying and servicing a number of customer plants, including this Fertilizer Plant," says Lailvaux. "Bearing Services Bethal's Lucky Houndalas established that the grease type and contaminant ingress by virtue of the arrangement were the cause of the customer's unsatisfactory vertical pump application performance. A recommendation was made for both the replacement of the original grease with that of the SKF high performance LGHP 2 grease, which has established successful performance with deep groove ball bearing configurations, and the use of a flinger (washer) to eliminate access of the contaminant to the bearing assembly. The flinger concept is a very simple, low cost washer that literally flings contaminants away from the bearing assembly. This, combined with the high performance grease, delivered a simplistic, yet superbly cost effective, high impact solution that yielded significant operational uptime rewards for the customer."
According to Lailvaux, since installation of the flinger and the use of LGHP 2 grease, the plant has increased its Mean Time between Bearing Replacements (MTBR) from one week to a staggering two years of uninterrupted application operation. "With such a vast improvement, our customer is realising numerous cost and time saving benefits: Maintenance technicians can therefore spend more time on planned maintenance tasks, operating costs for the vertical pump asset are dramatically reduced, supply of new replacement components is largely eliminated and regular bearing installation and pump reassembly is avoided."
Lailvaux says that SKF has specially developed a program to accurately document and calculate the effectiveness of a solution. The program, known as Documented Solutions (DSP) enables SKF to show the true value of a solution to its distribution network and customers by enabling the accurate capture of the cost of the solution versus the resultant operational uptime, maintenance costs, technical and/or energy benefits acquired by the customer.
"Two years after Houndalas presented the customer with the solution for the vertical pump assembly, I utilised the SKF DSP program and completed calculations that clearly reveal the immense savings acquired by the customer as a result of this solution over this period. Equipment runs smoothly with little or no interruption in production and as a result, maintenance personnel can be more effectively deployed to other areas of the plant where their skills are needed. The SKF DSP report produced at the conclusion of the calculation inputs revealed that a simple, low cost solution had a significant impact on the customer's productivity and revenue," summarises Lailvaux
SKF holds authorised distributors in high regard as they are an extension of SKF's product and service delivery and Lailvaux says that Bearing Services Bethal has proved invaluable in its commitment to delivering turn key solutions and exemplary service to the plants in the area.
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