Sweet manufacturer recovers production losses

Newark, UK - A convectionary manufacturer has achieved annual savings of £130,000 on its bearings and maintenance costs through the implementation of a programme to prevent water ingress into the bearings on a conveyor carrying sweets. The problem was causing crystallisation of sugar on the equipment, and subsequent costly machine breakdowns, resulting in lost production, which was costing over £254,000 per year.

When seeking to  source more durable bearings, the unnamed company called in engineers from NSK, who suggested using NSK’s Molded Oil bearings. These units employ a special solid lubricant, which offers more than twice the operating life of grease lubrication in water contaminated environments and means that operating environments are kept free of grease; and there is no need for refilling of lubricant.

Molded-Oil bearing inserts were fitted to the conveyor and trialled over an extended period of 18-months and then chosen to replace all original bearings when they failed. As an added benefit, regreasing has now been eliminated, representing an additional major saving in labour and downtime. The company has also signed up to NSK’s Asset Improvement Programme Care and Maintenance Training programme, as a security against possible future problems in other areas of its production, said NSK.