Conveyor Tail Drum Assembly

A quarrying company in the UK was experiencing regular downtime due to the short service life of bearings on its conveyor tail drum take-up unit. Conveyor stoppages, lost production and maintenance time were costing the company 9,419€ per annum.

Why are conveyor operations frequently interrupted?

The conveyor tail drum take-up unit was subject to repeat bearing failures that were resulting in machine stoppages and the replacement of bearings every four months.

NSK analysed the bearing failures.

The failures were occurring in highly abrasive conditions due to the ingress of water and grit, leading to bearing seizures and expensive conveyor stoppages.

Extended conveying operations moving forwards

NSK recommended replacing the previous, poor-performing bearings with Self-Lube® bearings featuring triple lip seals for use in high impact and heavily contaminated environments to prevent ingress of dirt. Using Self-Lube® bearings has increased service life dramatically, in turn reducing downtime, maintenance and bearing replacement costs by a total of 6,272€.