Success Story
Industry: Food and Beverage
Application: Meat Slicer Machine
Cost Savings: $32,492
Introduction
A leading producer of pork products was facing repeated bearing failures on 14 Meat Slicer Machines. Monthly bearing changeouts were necessary, leading to high maintenance costs and lengthy machine down time. NSK investigated the problem and determined that ingress of water and hard contaminants during daily machine wash down were causing the failures. NSK proposed a test with NSK Molded-Oil bearings resulting in a significant life extension and cost saving.
Key Facts
- 14 bearing failures monthly
- Approximately 168 man hours annually for replacement
- Substantial machine down time, 3 hours per bearing and shaft change per machine.
- NSK solution: Deep Groove Ball Bearings with Molded-Oil lubrication.
- Significant bearing life improvement resulting in no failures over a 4 month period on each machine.
- Productivity improvement.
- Significant annual cost saving achieved.
- Meat Slicer Machine
- Deep Groove Ball Bearings with Molded-Oil
Value Proposals
- Following repeated and costly bearing failures, the customer requested a solution to the problem on their Meat Former/Classifier/Slicing Machines.´
- A Failed Bearing Analysis determined that the failures were due to water and hard particle ingress resulting in lubrication breakdown/washout.
- A trial was proposed using NSK Molded-Oil Deep Groove Ball Bearings which proved to be successful. Bearing service life was extended significantly.
- Molded-Oil bearings were then installed in all 14 machines. A reduction in machine down time and maintenance costs yielded significant additional annual cost savings.
Product Features
- Available for high speed applications
- Available in ball bearing, spherical roller bearing and tapered roller bearings types
- Rust-proof - Stainless steel for corrosive environments
- Grease-free property with no oil refilling keeps operating environments clean
- Operating life more than twice as long as grease lubrication, in water or dust contaminated environments
- Contact-seal type available in standard inventory for ball bearings
- Achieves extended maintenance-free performance as Molded-Oil provides a continuous supply of lubricant
Cost Saving Breakdown
| Before | Cost p.a. | NSK Solution | Cost p.a. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bearing costs | $11,752 | Bearing costs | $36,766 | |
| Lost production costs | $25,080 | Lost production costs | $6,270 | |
| Labor costs | $16,123 | Labor costs | $3,762 | |
| Component costs | $35,113 | Component costs | $8,778 | |
| Total Costs | $88,068 | $55,576 | ||
Reference:SS-E-2067
