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Success Story

Industry: Food and Beverage

Application: Milk Bottle Conveyor

Cost Savings: € 7 625

Introduction

A market leading milk processing and bottling plant was experiencing repeated bearing failures on 5 lines of conveyors. They were changing bearings on a conveyor approximately every 16 weeks. This involved high maintenance costs and unwanted machine down time. NSK investigated this problem and found water was entering the bearings during the wash down process, causing the failures. A trial was agreed installing NSK Silver-Lube bearings with food grade grease, this solution resulted in an immediate improvement and significant lifetime extension.

Key Facts

  • Frequent bearing failures occuring approximately every 16 weeks across 5 conveyors
  • Approximately 20 man hours needed to replace failed bearings every 5 years
  • Significant machine down time, 1 hour per bearing change
  • NSK solution: Silver-Lube housed bearing units
  • Significant lifetime improvement resulting in no failures over a 5 year period
  • Productivity improvement
  • Substantial cost saving achieved
F&B
  • Milk Bottling Conveyor
RHP Silver-Lube, Bearing Unit, cut, 874x555
  • NSK Silver-Lube

Value Proposals

  • Following repeated and costly bearing failures the customer requested a solution to their problem on 5 Milk Bottling Line Conveyors
  • After performing an Application Review it was discovered that water was getting into the bearings causing the corrosion.
  • NSK recommended the customer to use Stainless Steel Silver-Lube bearings to eliminate the problem
  • A trial was proposed and implemented on all 5 conveyor systems
  • This resulted in a reduction of machine downtime and maintenance costs and a significant annual cost saving as bearing service life was extended to more than 5 years

Product Features

  • PBT thermoplastic resin housing
  • Martensitic stainless steel
  • Silicone rubber seals
  • Available in Pillow Block, 2 and 4 bolt flanges and take-up unit housings
  • Bore size 20mm – 40mm
  • Corrosion resistance
  • Paint free housings, preventing chipping & flaking
  • Resistant to contamination increasing operating life
  • Ideal for operations where process fluid is unavoidable

Product Sheet >>

Cost Saving Breakdown

Before Cost p.a. NSK Solution Cost p.a.
Costs for bearings € 2.804 Costs for bearings € 748
Engineering labour costs € 1.925 Engineering labour costs € 481
Lost production costs € 4.125 No lost production costs € 0
Total Costs € 8 854 € 1 229

Reference:SS-E-2070