Baked-in know how saves dough

What’s the difference between a bearing design and a bearing? The answer is ‘real life’. However effective a bearing may look in a CAD drawing, once it’s installed in an asset and is operational in an application, real life has a habit of stepping in and causing problems. That’s why a leading manufacturer of bakery equipment called on ERIKS’ help, in a case of repeated bearing failure. Because ERIKS understand bearings from both sides: from the point of view of the original equipment manufacturer (OEM), and the end-user.
 

The OEM had supplied a major bakery with a dough shaping and handling machine, which is a key part of its production process. However the machine was experiencing frequent breakdowns due to repeated bearing failures – as often as every six months.

Not only was this a cost in terms of downtime, lost production and replacement bearings, but it was also an unsustainable situation. Every new bearing has an environmental cost in terms of its manufacture, and every old bearing which fails to achieve its anticipated service life is an unnecessary waste of energy and raw materials.

However, the OEM could see no immediate reason for the failure, so further investigations were carried out at the customer’s site.
 

Keeping it real world

Engineering expertise is one thing. Real-world engineering experience is another.

ERIKS’ engineers have both, which means they know how assets and components should function, and they know how they actually perform in reality. They also know the most likely failure modes – which nevertheless doesn’t stop them spotting the least likely when they arise.

ERIKS’ experience in working not only with the manufacturer of the baking machinery, but also directly with end-user customers in the bakeries, gave them a unique perspective which made it easier for them to identify the issue, and to find a cost-effective resolution.
 

Off-the-shelf solution

Machines are easier to re-engineer than humans are. So knowing that even the most rigorous lubrication schedule (which this one wasn’t) can go wrong (which this one did), ERIKS’ engineers proposed changes to the asset, to prevent the bearings from continuing to fail prematurely.

ERIKS’ proposal was to replace the existing bearings – which needed regular lubrication – with sealed bearings filled with grease for life.

The challenge was the very restricted space available at each end of the drive shaft, for the bearings to fit into.

Having a bearing specially manufactured to fit would have been one solution. But ERIKS’ more sustainable, real-world solution was to source a high-precision sealed bearing off the shelf. Some limited amount of modification was required to suit the application, but ERIKS’ engineers used as many OE parts as possible, and only changed what was unavoidable.

The initial cost is slightly more than the OEM bearing. But with the new bearings now having been in place for two years without failing, there are significant savings on downtime, replacement costs, and the unsustainable environmental cost of manufacturing new bearings every six months.

Starting at the end

That could have been the end of the story. But there’s still the story of the end. The end of the shaft, that is.

While investigating the initial problem, ERIKS’ engineers noticed that the bearing at one end of the machine failed more frequently than the other. So although the original cause of failure has been identified, there could be an additional issue affecting one of the bearings – such as different forces, or an as yet unidentified source of contamination, for example.

This may demand a redesign, or some other solution. But whatever the cause, and whatever the most effective and most sustainable way to resolve the issue, you can be sure ERIKS will get to the bottom – and the end – of it.