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Let our bearings take your strain
Are you sitting in a chair with wheels, or on a train? Are you eating a biscuit or drinking tea? Perhaps you’ve taken prescription medicine today. Whatever the case, bearings will be playing their part. From wind turbines to railways, food and beverage production machinery to pharmaceutical industry equipment – and even in semiconductor manufacture – you’ll find bearings there. But you may not know they are until they fail.
When bearings malfunction, an entire operation can grind to a halt. Meaning long, costly delays and (if it’s your production line or manufacturing operation), stress you can do without.
And when life’s even tougher for bearings in some environments, you need bearings that are tougher too.
Dig, build, blast
Mines, quarries and building sites could have been created just to put equipment to the test.
The work itself puts a physical strain on the mechanical assets involved. And the whole operating environment is as unhealthy as you can imagine for the equipment. Dirt, dust and countless other forms of contamination find their way to everywhere they’re not wanted.
Even worse, if bearings fail here, then the remote location of many quarries and mines means real problems getting hold of parts, so downtime clocks up alarmingly.
The steelmaking sector is another harsh environment, where bearings have a vital role with no concessions to make their working life easier. Day in, day out, they face particle contamination, the presence of water, heavy loads, shock loads, strong vibrations, rapid acceleration and deceleration, and extreme temperatures.
Fortunately, wherever you find exceptionally challenging operating conditions, you’ll find NSK have the experience – and the products – to match.
Bearings and the bottom line
Just as a failed bearing can lead to unwanted costs, the ideal bearing can lead to unexpected savings. That’s something NSK have proved many times to customers worldwide.
A Central American quarry took NSK’s advice to choose vibratory specification (VS) Series spherical roller bearings. Made from HTF Steel and designed for the harshest of environments, they saved the customer over £41,000.
A quarry in the United Arab Emirates now saves an incredible £1,637,169 every year in repair costs, thanks to two NSK suggestions. One: a modification to the shaft and housing on a jaw crusher. And two: training for the maintenance team on the correct installation of NSK bearings.
Even some of the smallest and simplest products can lead to significant savings.
That’s what a market-leading manufacturer of construction industry insulation products discovered. In spite of their investment in a new automated line, production was erratic due to repeated failures of the bearings on the band saw’s blade guide rollers.
Sometimes the bearings lasted just three hours, and bearing changes were being made on a daily basis. The result, of course, was huge amounts of downtime, greatly increased maintenance, and major production shortfalls.
Simply staggering savings
After a thorough investigation, NSK experts identified contamination as the root cause, as it made its way into the inner workings of the bearings. The NSK solution was as simple as it was effective.
A trial installation convinced the customer to replace their current failing bearings with NSK Deep Groove Ball Bearings (DGBBs) with DDU seals.
These could provide longer bearing life, reduced maintenance costs, less unexpected downtime and no more lost production.
NSK DGBBs are designed with not only a face-riding contact seal – providing maximum protection against any contaminant – but also a patented triple lip mechanism. This forms a complex labyrinth to protect against the ingress of dust and water. Other features include constant friction torque, good grease retention, and a grease return feature on the inside surface of the seal.
Once the customer switched to the NSK product, the results were staggering.
Firstly, rather than swapping-out bearings on a daily basis as they had previously, the customer is able to rely on the DGBBs for three to four months at a time.
So this simple change alone has resulted in major savings.
Instead of spending almost £14,000 a year on new bearings, with NSK DGBBs they spend just £878.00. Engineering costs, which had racked up due to daily bearing changes, are reduced by around £20,000. And lost production time is recouped to the tune of £503,500. All in all, the customer is saving more than £538,500 per annum.
That’s just one of many examples proving that, with NSK, the harsher the environment, the sweeter the savings.
For more information on Bearing Solutions and to get in touch with one of our ERIKS Specialists, please contact your local ERIKS Service Centre, who will be happy to discuss your options.
#NSK #ERIKS #LetsMakeIndustryWorkBetter #Bearings #DeepGrooveBallBearings #CostSavings
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