NSK helps Italian group to nibble costs
22 Sep 2011
London — An Italian snack food company is achieving annual savings of Euro192,600 on production and maintenance costs since adopting an NSK asset improvement programme to overcome a persistent problem of failure of fixed tail drum conveyor bearings operating in a damp environment.
The company operates six production lines, and across all of these was experiencing the same problem: bearing life of just six months due to the adverse environment. With production costs running at Euro3,500/hr, NSK was called in to analyse the application and suggest an alternative.
After investigating the application, NSK proposed replacing the existing double-row ball bearings with its Molded-Oil Series of spherical roller bearings.
These bearings are said to remove the downtime associated with regular bearing replacements, and deliver maintenance-cost savings as a result of longer re-lubrication intervals. They pemploy a solid lubricant that improves the performance of machinery and equipment in environments exposed to high humidity and contamination.
Molded-Oil lubricant is claimed to offer more than twice the operating life of grease lubrication in water contaminated environments. Moreover, said NSK, the technology means that operating environments are kept free of grease and there is no need for refilling of lubricant, as the product provides a continuous supply of lubricating oil.
Since fitting of the new spherical roller bearings, bearing life has increased to 15 months. As a consequence, maintenance intervals have been reduced, leading to major savings in production downtime costs, calculated at Euro192,600 annually.
The snack food manufacturer is also benefiting because a costly regreasing operation has now been eliminated. This, said NSK, represents an additional major cost saving in respects of labour and downtime, and a solution to environmental protection.
