Serving up the recipe for efficient bearings

Alarmingly, and inconveniently, the customer was experiencing failures every 4-6 weeks, costing in excess of £2,000 each time. But just one phone call to ERIKS' bearing specialists, and it was only a matter of time before the recipe for efficiency was served up.

The initial inspection quickly revealed that the problem stemmed from seals not performing their duties correctly, allowing the ingress of batter mix into the bearing assembly.

Normally, when leaving the mixing bowl, the batter's next destination would be a baking tray then into a hot oven, but these batches had completely different ideas.

Entering the assembly through the drive's front cover, the residue continued to build up in the unit. Passing through the outer cover seal, a mechanical seal and two inner PTFE rotary shaft seals, the bearings were inundated with gunky batter.

It had travelled all the way through the bearing assembly right to the back cover, and its abrasive consistency resulted in the rotary shaft seals being extremely worn. Even with four layers of sealing technology, the pressure exerted by the batter mix was too overwhelming for the various seals types.

ERIKS' bearing division got to work, and the first port of call was to re-design the seal arrangement, including upgraded bearings, a complex labyrinth seal arrangement replacing the mechanical seals, and new PTFE seals, the latter being a request of the customer.

 Unfortunately, this wasn't the answer. Three months later, failure struck again. The Beta drive was re-inspected, and just like previously, the seals had once again failed.

Standard nitrile rubber rotary shaft seals were then installed, with a Gamma seal over the top of the assembly. As it was mounted to the shaft, and seated flat to the top cover, it would rotate simultaneously, acting as a flinger and forcing the batter away from its previous point of ingress.

The introduction of the single point lubrication systems was a smart one, delivering multiple benefits to the customer. The ingenious design provides precisely calculated automated lubrication, continuously, from one month to a full year, ensuring that grease is served consistently at the right levels and to those hard-to-reach points.

This, in-turn, would extend the lifecycle of the bearings, increase profitability through reduced downtime, and minimise the requirement for maintenance sources with its fully-automated design.

Oh, and it's environmentally-friendly and 100% recyclable. So, not only did it save the customer time and money, in the long run, it protects the planet.

Reporting back 18 months on, the customer confirmed that the unit has been in full production without any issues. A far cry from the previous 6-week stoppages.

Since completion, two additional Beta Drive versions have been re-designed, and two further are in the process, although they slightly differ in design.

It's been an on-going issue suffered by many bakeries across the country, with ERIKS bearings specialists facing four different designs in recent times. But while it was not a simple fix, they have redesigned the sealing and bearing arrangements for all of them.

Once again, ERIKS' know-how and expertise 'battering' a problem with a well-conceived bespoke solution.