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Maintenance in Motion

The document discusses how regular maintenance and diagnostics can help prevent issues like unplanned downtime, catastrophic failure, and safety concerns. It explores approaches to maintenance including anticipating problems, fixing issues before they happen, and applying maintenance strategies for consistent machine health. Diagnostics and maintenance feedback functions can add value by running processes more efficiently and producing higher quality products.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
97 views

Maintenance in Motion

The document discusses how regular maintenance and diagnostics can help prevent issues like unplanned downtime, catastrophic failure, and safety concerns. It explores approaches to maintenance including anticipating problems, fixing issues before they happen, and applying maintenance strategies for consistent machine health. Diagnostics and maintenance feedback functions can add value by running processes more efficiently and producing higher quality products.
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Maintenance in Motion: Basics, technology, and more

f regular design maintenance and diagnostics are not performed, the consequences can be disastrous: Unplanned downtime, catastrophic failure, lost production, and even potential safety concerns for workers. Improved safety

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Maintenance in Motion: Basics, technology, and more

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newly revised brochure by Martin Sprocket & Gear, Inc. provides helpful tips for routine maintenance as well as insight for troubleshooting common problems and corrective action on power transmission and material handling products. (Click this Maintenance Guide Link to begin the PDF download without pesky registration.) Individual sections on chain drives, gear drives, chain couplings, elastomeric couplings, synchronous drives, v-belt drives and screw & drag conveyors as well as heavy duty conveyor pulleys is included. Maintenance issues such as lubrication, alignment and elongation are addressed. Common power transmission troubleshooting topics include premature wear, excessive noise vibration, belt wear and failure. Material handling issues like shaft breakage, motor overload, hanger bearing failure and accelerated flight wear are covered. All information is presented in an easy to follow and understand format. This latest version should prove to be the most comprehensive compilation of much needed information in the marketplace today. Martin provides this publication free of charge. For additional information including which of Martin's 31 North American plants are located nearest you, call 817-258-3000 or visit www.martinsprocket.com.
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The State of Maintenance: Diagnostics and maintenance feedback functions are strategies to add value to your design, by providing a way to run processes more efficiently or produce a higher quality product.

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Balancing Costs and Maintenance Programs: Investing in new equipment with this capability is expensive, but it promotes more effective and consistent routine maintenance.

Heat Imaging: Where theres motion as in electromechanical drives, spindles, and feed axes theres heat. And where theres a handheld thermal imaging camera and heat, you have all the makings of a predictive maintenance program that can save a significant amount of time and money.

Maintenance Items to Help Reduce Energy Costs: Know your peak demand times. Make sure controls are properly calibrated. Regularly check belt tension and alignment in conveyor systems. Maintain proper lubrication levels for bearings. Minimize air leaks. Numerous approaches in maintenance help reduce energy costs ...

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A Few Words on Proper Lurication: Lubricants in general reduce friction, dissipate heat, and help prevent corrosion. Grease is used when the lubricant must seal against contamination, or when it must stay in place because relubrication is difficult or impossible.
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Diagnostics also assist in the detection of suboptimal equipment conditions. So if a system is not monitored, then reliability and maintenance personnel have no opportunity to know the condition of the equipment, says Howard W. Penrose, Ph.D., CMRP, president of Success by Design Reliability Services, Saybrook, Conn. Because diagnostics is based on data processing, accurate input information is paramount to these systems. The quality of data depends heavily on the caliber of both data collection and system connectivity. Open standards such as Ethernet itself plus open industrial protocols on Ethernet have improved industrial communications in recent years. And diagnostic information in realtime is also vitally important, says Kosnik. Its nearly impossible to diagnose systems with information fed slowly relative to the process; timely information about a systems status provides a real

Maintenance in Motion:

Maintaining motion machinery


owadays, product features are often what differentiate one component from another. Diagnostics and maintenance feedback functions are a major way to add value to your design, by providing a way to run processes more efficiently or produce a higher quality product. They can report output, predict the upper limits of a new design, and make maintenance more effective. Whether new or for the retrofit market, the paybacks are huge when diagnostics are provided, employed, and used correctly, says Don Kosnik, product manager at Avtron Manufacturing Inc., Cleveland.

Technologies such as light curtains ensure operator safety while allowing quick access to machinery for maintenance and manual adjustments.

picture of subtle motion workings, and allows users to make corrections more quickly. Productivity increases with direct process control using immediate feedback, agrees Ralph Brillhart of Advanced Test Group, San Diego. Diagnostics can be optimized for a new system in a couple ways. Data from existing systems and historical information can be used directly to define the environment that exists for a new system, says Brillhart. This translates into more efficient new designs by preventing overdesign and ensuring proper parameters from the start. Too, new designs can incorporate the ability to make measurements that
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allow for future diagnostics improving the new designs life, and validating design criteria in turn, feeding improvements for future designs. Without diagnostics, prototyping and assembly are especially inefficient. Diagnostics improve assembly by adding calibration functionalities for visibility in production and process quality, machine downtime, and synchronizing multiple production and logistics schedules. This calibration must be frequent, consistent, and com5

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tics testing: Improved efficiency from exposing root-cause problems, enabling engineers to correct it during design, says Brooks. Sometimes the final decision to include diagnostics is made by management. Even when infrared windows and diagnostics test points are specified in the initial RFQ, they are often sacrificed to lower initial purchase cost. But in fact, this can increase safety and reliability costs over the long run, laments Penrose. This is why the relationship between management goals and engineering realities must be clear. Key performance indicators (KPIs) for top-level management usually relate to machine uptime, efficiency, product grade, output, or piece-count if applicable. However, from a machine maintenance standpoint, these indicators usually are a result of other lower-level signals which must be monitored, controlled, and kept in check, says Kosnik. For example, in continuous-web industries, a fast and very wide information channel is a must. (Wide channels feed many data points.) Information might include speed, current, tension, draw, pressure, temperature, vibration, and position. So being able to monitor these signals allows end users to improve KPIs for management, says Kosnik. Even small machine efficiency increases (even 1 or 2%) can boost the bottom line of a company, paying for both diagnostic tools and the associated personnel training. At an industrial web-processing plant, for example, a typical troubleshooting call by the maintenance department might take 100 minutes. But after the installation of diagnostic tools to monitor machine drives and PLCs, the average troubleshooting time at one plant was reduced to 10 minutes, says Kosnik. If you look at a machine where downtime costs $6,000 to $10,000 an hour and many troubleshooting calls can be placed in a month diagnostics can be indispensable. So if diagnostics are not employed, machine degradation usually occurs eventually, Kosnik says. Machine degradation usually leads to undesirable business decisions being made. The general value for high repair-versus-replace costs, in the USA, has averaged about $25,000, says Penrose. For safetys sake Regular diagnostics tests increase mean time between failures, increase production without capital expenditure, and reduce inventory spares and maintenance manpower. If diagnostics are not regularly performed, the consequence can
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ply with process quality standards, but slow the process as little as possible, says Jacques Hoffmann, president of InterTech Development Co., Skokie, Ill. When systems are calibrated ineffectively, they dont reveal problems in underlying system design and functioning. So then phenomena such as leak test fixtures, for example, can allow creep that makes it impossible to differentiate good parts from defective, or system design flaws resulting in inadequate signal-to-noise ratios during electrical testing. On lines that run continuously, especially on critical, costly systems, regular diagnostics is the most effective way to foresee potential breakdowns. Now, in many cases, diagnostics are being built directly into new systems, right off the assembly line. Investing in new equipment with this capability is expensive, but it promotes more effective and consistent routine maintenance, says Rick Brooks, manager of reliability services, The Timken Co., Canton, Ohio. Systems can automatically perform diagnostics checks at scheduled intervals to report back to an online maintenance program, drastically reducing unplanned downtime for repairs. In this way, a plant can operate on the offense rather than the defense. Otherwise, if systems do not have these diagnostics preinstalled, consistent screenings can be achieved with effort and a little diligence, Brooks adds. Newly installed equipment should be tested to establish baselines for future monitoring, and (by acceptance testing) to identify any faulty new equipment. Another benefit of consistent diagnos6 MAINTENANCE MARTIN SPROCKET martinsprocket.com

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they happen. The worst thing that I can imagine is loss of life as the result of a catastrophic failure, says Brillhart. Certainly other losses could occur as well which might result in lost productivity through downtime and repair costs. But these pale when compared to any loss of personnel. System diagnostics can serve as a warning to personnel before catastrophic events have a chance to take place, he says. Rick West, engineer at Sensor Developments, Orion, Mich., agrees: When a problem goes undetected, substandard parts are created. If these parts are shipped and installed into the finished product, their failure can cause injury or death. In addition, undetected problems can lead to safety recalls, which are extremely expensive. Its a two-way street: Diagnostics also protect machines from humans. In built and dynamic systems, diagnostics are the only way one can differentiate good parts from bad. And the best diagnostics do not slow down production or prototype testing, which is particularly beneficial where human intervention (and the errors normally associated with dayto- day human inputs) is removed from processes, says Hoffmann. Compromised processes can go unnoticed without quality benchmarks. This happens quite a bit. For example, a common problem with in-process gauging stations is that they are insufficiently rigid or lacking correct reference points. Or with hydraulics, temperature and nonlinear compressability result in inconsistent measurements. If proper thought has been
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be disastrous: Unplanned costly downtime, catastrophic failure, lost production, and even potential safety concerns for workers. Improved safety can come in the form of reduced maintenance by anticipating problems and fixing them before

Heat imaging
Where theres motion as in electromechanical drives, spindles, and feed axes theres heat. And where theres a handheld thermal imaging camera and heat, you have all the makings of a predictive maintenance program that can save a significant amount of time and money. Compared with preventive maintenance, where repair intervals are based purely on probability, predictive maintenance acts when trends in measured data indicate an imminent drop-off in efficiency, or worse. Fixing healthy equipment on a required rather than routine basis can reduce maintenance cycles by up to 90% over five years, according to R. Keith Mobley, author of An Introduction to Predictive Maintenance. It can also extend useful machine life by up to 60% and increase manpower utilization as much as 85%. The first step in setting up a predictive maintenance program is determining a baseline against which suspected operating anomalies can be compared, analyzed and, if necessary, corrected. Radiated heat is usually the easiest and least expensive variable to monitor, although some programs are based on lubricating oil and wear particle analysis, while others key on vibration measurements. In the case of thermography, the camera vendor
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is probably the best source of information in terms of what to measure, where and when to do it, and how to interpret it. A good vendor can even help you set realistic expectations with regard to payback time. This will vary greatly because the time required to develop a viable program can be anywhere from two or three manmonths for a simple machine to 15 man-years for a large, integrated manufacturing plant. Only after one assesses needs can one choose the thermal imager itself. Considerations include safety; portability (size and weight may affect data collection); temperature range (ambient as well as target); power source (batteries last only so long and take time to charge); and software (the ability to download and interpret data shouldnt involve an additional fee). Cost is almost a non-issue. Even high-performance imagers are under $10,000, considerably less than the instrumentation required for other inspection methods. In addition, a predictive maintenance program can be implemented in incremental steps so thermal imaging may be the start of something more. And with the type of payoff cited by Mobley and others $100 for every dollar invested.

given to the real testing requirements of an application, there must be equal attention to monitoring and managing these processes and systems throughout their use or risk product recalls, costly retesting of components, lost business and a reputation for defective products in the marketplace. It is better when a diagnostic system catches a problem before it becomes too expensive to

fix, while preventing a machine from creating bad parts. Is it justified? Some say that the cost of health monitoring is an inherent cost of doing business not something optional and the real concern one has to consider is whether system validation methods being used are sufficiently accurate. Indeed, more and more industrial man9

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Tips on minimizing day-to-day industrial-application energy costs


Know your peak demand times. The price for gas and electricity is often higher at the beginning of a production shift. During such times plants are drawing maximum power as they work their way up to speed, temperature, and capacity. One way to save money is to find out when peak demand times are, then try to reschedule your start-ups for off-peak hours. One idea is to schedule downtime during peak hours. Adopt a preventative maintenance program. Make sure controls are properly calibrated. Regularly check belt tension and alignment in conveyor systems. Over time, rubber belts tend to stretch, reducing tension and friction on the drive pulleys. This makes equipment work harder, using more energy. Maintain proper lubrication levels for bearings. Under-lubricated bearings waste energy in the form of friction heating; over-lubricated bearings waste it in the form of additional torque required to displace excess lubricant. Using the wrong lubricant also wastes energy. Minimize air leaks. Leaks can consume as much as 30% of a compressors output. If a single 1/64-in. air leak costs a plant $12.91 annually (at $0.10 per cubic foot of compressed air), 50 such leaks across the facility can add up to $645. A leak twice the diameter (1/32-in.) wastes $51.60 annually. By fixing leaks, you might also be able to switch to a smaller, more efficient compressor. Avoid overheating. Dont allow motors and other equipment to run hot. Overheated machinery can draw more electricity by kicking cooling systems into overdrive. Proper lubrication and a few well-placed fans can add up to significant savings. Improve motor rewinding practices. Motors typically lose about 2% of their efficiency with each rewind. Improper rewinding techniques, which are all too common, can decrease efficiency even more. Often a new motor is a better choice: The cost of one rewind is about 0.7% of the motors total lifetime cost, while a new motors purchase price is only 2%. The average motor consumes 50 to 60 times its purchase price in electricity during a 10-year life; the cost difference between a rewind and a new motor is insignificant. Replacing standard, non-efficient electric motors, rather than rewinding, can reduce a plants total energy bill by 10%. Avoid motor oversizing. Any time a motor operates below 40% of its capacity, its probably wasting energy. This often occurs when a failed motor is replaced with a copy, without taking time to reexamine the line. In many cases, there will have been changes that make it possible to use a smaller, more cost-effective motor.

Your equipment is your businesses lifeblood. Dont let unexpected downtime destroy your bottom-line. Routine inspections and scheduled maintenance reduce the likelihood of production failure. But when the unpredictable happens and youre down, call Martin for unbelievable response to your specific needs. Martin has been manufacturing quality Power Transmission & Bulk Material Handling products in the USA for nearly 60 years. Our dedication to quality and service allows us to offer the most reliable line of replacement products in the industry.

ufacturing processes previously thought too trivial are now scrutinized ... perhaps toothpicks are manufactured without too much health monitoring, jokes West. If system health monitoring methods are themselves prone to inaccuracies, there is much reason to question whether they are worth the bother. For example, there are still some who use mechanical calibration methods but these methods have inherent limitations, says Hoffmann. (For example, pneu10

matic valves and other moving parts are prone to stick or wear, and clogging.) Incorrect storage and operator use of such devices also degrade their diagnostic value in terms of statistical process control, Hoffmann adds. First and foremost, diagnostics should be installed on critical machinery. This includes equipment that has an effect on personnel safety, the environment (and other regulatory requirements), production, and equipment that has

a high repair-versus-replacement cost. The cost of regular diagnostic testing can outweigh the benefits it provides. This can be the case with small, noncritical systems components, says Brooks. Too, if a part has a predicted life of 10 years replacement and repair-free operation, it doesnt make sense to test it every day, or install online systems. In this case, a handheld diagnostic test would be the best choice used at an interval decided upon by
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maintenance personnel and engineers. Also, machines with redundant backup systems dont need overly vigilant monitoring, says Brooks. There are other examples of where the cost of monitoring a system might be more than the cost of repairing or replacing it. One might be monitoring the wheel bearing in my bicycle, says Brillhart. The cost of replacement is not great, and it is unlikely that a catastrophic failure would occur. Further, the sensor system might be no better than my own observations that the bearing is going bad for example, from vibration, roughness, and noise. Also, there is not a large safety concern if the bearing in a bicycle fails. But this is certainly not true for the bearing in a jet engine, where safety is

paramount, he adds. Different levels of diagnostics are required for different types of systems, agrees Kosnik. This is where scalable diagnostics can come in handy. The ability to take hardware and software and size it to the machine application gives the provider an edge; a diagnostic system that can still collect and store data at fast rates (but be scalable to different classes of machines) helps users justify diagnostics. Rather than compare the costs of diagnostics to the cost of the overall system, designers should compare diagnostic costs to those of machine efficiency: Not having diagnostics could cost you a lot more than having them. Coming soon Engineers know end users

want technology like online remote monitoring in new and operating systems, but there are additional costs associated with this technology besides initial installation. Whats the solution? Another trend is an increase in the purchase of less-sophisticated diagnostic machinery for use by frontline maintenance personnel. The lower cost of these devices makes this an easy action to justify, especially when compared to the huge cost savings that can be realized by their successful implementation, says Brooks. In the past manufacturers monitored the health of their machines on a periodic basis. With the introduction of programmable automation controllers (and their high-speed I/O and online analysis) an increasing number of machines are being designed

Fixing problems after they occur means theyve already affected the process; in the long run, it is much cheaper to take care of problems before they happen. Distributed architecture will take over for centralized architecture. This will happen on many fronts including sensors and sensor networks, wireless networks, high-speed serial networks, data collection, with permanently installed diagnostic systems. Programmable automation controllers can be used to predict faults before they ever happen, and can generate periodic machine health reports. One trend is more electronic, smart sensors employed to capture data, perform diagnostic computations (statistical, temporal, spectral) and make appropriate decisions based on the results. Brillhart believes that sensor miniaturization and computing capabilities have accelerated this process. Machine diagnostics have been around for many years, but technology advancements in the last couple of years (the IC, the PC, Ethernet, databases, storage media, and the Internet) brought diagnostics to the mainstream. Today, machine builders are even investing in diagnostic systems to increase the speed and uptime of their machines by collecting machine health data to detect and even autocorrect machine faults.
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and data presentation, predicts Kosnik. But all systems will eventually fail. How do diagnostics factor in when the inevitable does occur? When breakdowns do occur, modular systems simplify both diagnostic processes and replacement. Of course, internet access allows for mainstreaming of remote diagnostic services in the face of shrinking staffs.

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Tropical Foods Company Inc. in Clifton, S.C., produces Tropiway Plantain and Cocoyam FUFU Flour, a traditional African food that is a diet staple for many people around the world. Producing the specialty flours entails the dumping of approximately 2,500 lb of various ingredients, in powder form, from bags into a mixer. After blending, the product is transported to a flour filling station where its bagged and put in boxes that go on store shelves. CHALLENGE: A screw conveyor used to transport the materials produced a great deal of dust from the powder ingredients, and the motor driving the screw tended to leak oil after a couple months of operation. The motor was located above the mixer, so workers had to be careful oil didnt drop into the flour mixture, causing contamination. When the motor needed

Dusty situation addressed

service, it had to be removed and taken to a shop, which would cause a day or two of downtime. SOLUTION: Solid Design Southeast, Charlotte, a distributor for Vac-U-Max systems in Belleville, N.J., suggested an automated, closed pneumatic system composed of Vac-U-Max products, including a bag-dump station, vacuum pickup device, vacuum receiver, and control panel. The turnkey system would be driven by an electric vacuum pump and include an inline check screen to filter and recover flour powder dust. The new system is completely automated. With a push of a button, materials are moved from mixer to finished products. Since the installation, Tropical Foods reports an 80% productivity increase and zero downtime. And the flour dust problem is completely gone.

The longevity of mechanical power-transmisison components depends on proper lubrication. Often, clean high-quality, non-detergent, petroleum-based or synthetic oil is best. Consider the lubrication of chain. Here, lube that is too viscous (such as grease) cannot penetrate the critical pin-bushing joint. Properly lubricated chains also minimize corrosion due to exposure, and maximize chain life by avoiding direct metal-to-metal contact. At very low temperatures, a lubricant increases in viscosity. Even in these situations, correctly selected lubricants flow into the critical pin-bushing contact area, minimizing chain wear. At particularly high temperatures, specialty lube must be selected. Regular lubricants may dissipate, carbonize, or deteriorate more quickly.
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A few words on
Lubricants in general reduce friction, dissipate heat, and help prevent corrosion. Grease is used when the lubricant must seal against contamination, or when it must stay in place because relubrication is difficult or impossible. Many new greases have been developed recently, and the variety grows constantly. The choice is still up to you, however. When choosing a grease, consider the severity of the application, design of the unit, operating conditions, and maintenance procedures.

proper lubrication
Bleeding rate measures how fast the oil tends to separate from the soap. Emulsification properties are important, especially in humid conditions. A grease that is easily emulsified can be flushed from the power-transmisison device readily in wet applications. However, this grease best dissipates small quantities of moisture. Viscosity is important because higher-viscosity greases are less apt to leak out of a component, and lower-viscosity greases allow higher speeds due to lower friction and heat generation caused by working the grease. Other soaps and synthetic soap replacements are used in special applications with abnormal operating conditions. For instance, some aircraft applications require a special grease that can be used over a wide range of temperature and atmospheric pressure. In fact, additives are used to further modify greases. Anti-oxidants retard deterioration. Fillers, including sulfide compounds and graphite, are used for special applications, frequently involving extreme pressures that result from high loads. Wetting agents facilitate wetting or lubrication of the ball track, especially in applications involving reciprocating motion.

The Bonfiglioli 300 Series Planetary reducer drives a dewatering press at Lincoln Paper and Tissue.

Evaluating greases
Grease is basically a combination of soap and oil. Additives may be included for stabilization, anti-oxidation, and other special performance needs. Variations in greases are determined by the characteristics of the soap, the oil viscosity, the percentage of oil, and the additives used. You need to consider many properties when selecting greases: Lubrication properties of the grease determine how well it prevents wear of surfaces. Penetration value refers to the stiffness or movability of grease and is affected by the percentage of oil in the grease. Oxidation rate of the grease is important; oxidized greases are poor lubricants and tend to accelerate corrosion. Increased resistance to oxidation is needed at high temperatures, and during long storage or service life.
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Differences in soaps
A soap acts as a kind of sponge to keep oil in the mixture. Soaps differ according to type, hardness, and percentage used. There are several types of soaps with distinct characteristics. Soda-based soaps are used in dry applications and where it is necessary to absorb and dissipate small amounts of moisture, such as condensation. Moisture is dissipated throughout the grease and expelled when the temperature increases during operation. Water-repellent soaps are not easily displaced by water. However, they can trap water, making it difficult to expel. Common water-repellent greases are calcium or lithium-based. Calcium-based greases are used for some components in constant service at temperatures to 175 F, but should not be used at high speeds. Lithium soaps can be used at higher temperatures and speeds.

Maintaining a grease supply


Compared with the problems of oil lubrication, maintaining a grease supply is simple. Consider sealed or shielded bearings lubricated for life. In more severe cases, oil bleeds from a partially filled reservoir of grease in the housing exterior that leads to a shield plate in the bearing. For even more severe applications, an open bearing is used with grease reservoirs on both sides. External seals incorporated into the machine structure keep the grease next to the component. The cavities are only half filled and must not be overloaded. In the toughest applications, the grease must be replaced periodically. Old and worn grease is forced out as new grease is added. To prevent overheating, the unit is run until the surplus grease is expelled
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before the cavity is closed. Overfilling the component (especially bearings) with grease can cause problems at high speed in particular. Also, contamination is always a potential problem with grease relubrication. In general, higher speeds call for more frequent relubrication.

Case in Point: Gearbox tackles downtime in water treatment


In todays do-more-with-less economy, turning trash into fuel makes both environmental and economic sense. Thats just what Lincoln Paper and Tissue is doing at its manufacturing mill in Lincoln, Maine. Every year, the company produces approximately 70,000 tons of commodity towels, napkins, and specialty napkingrade tissue, along with another 75,000 tons of uncoated printing paper. As part of its manufacturing process, all of the mills liquid waste is pumped to
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its water treatment plant. The final step in the treatment process incorporates a dewatering screw press, which separates water from paper waste, chips, ash, bark, and other solids. The goal is to remove as much water as possible; Lincoln then uses these solids to mix with other fuel and power its boiler. The drier the solids, the higher the BTUs. Lincoln generates about half of its electricity by burning the sludge along with wood, bark, and chips, fueling a biomass boiler that supplies steam to the pulp and papermaking process, as well as a backpressure steam turbine. The alternative to burning the sludge is trucking it to a local landfill, an option that is both expensive and contrary to the mills environmental policy. The screw press is a vital part of our water treatment process, says John Sutherland, Lincolns utilities maintenance superintendent. Reliability of the gearbox on this press is crucial for the mill. Downtime is very expensive, not only in terms of gearbox cost, but in manhours and lost production. If the 60,000 pounds of sludge being dewatered each

day is interrupted, costs could reach into thousands of dollars. The mills screw press originally used a cycloidal-type gearbox, from which Sutherland recalls they were lucky to get 12 months of operation. He continues, I was getting tired of replacing an expensive gearbox that underperforms and isnt repairable. Whenever we disassembled the cycloidal unit, in hope of repair, wed find nearly a pound of metal sitting in the bottom of the gearbox and rollers broken in half. It was a total loss, as fixing it cost more than a new one. Thats when I started looking at different solutions. Randy Bryant of Lane Conveyors and Drives, Brewer, Maine, Lincolns local supplier for power transmission equipment, recommended the 300 Series Planetary reducer from Bonfiglioli Inc., Hebron, Ky. The recommendation was based on Lanes experience with these units on various skid steers used in the forest products industry. Bryant explains, The ductile iron housings, tapered roller bearings, and internal splines give this reducer the shock load capability that make it the right box for the screw press application. Lane fabricated special feet for the gearbox as well as a drop-in base plate, modifications that allowed Lincoln to make a quick and painless transition from the cycloidal unit to the planetary model. By converting biomass solids and wood waste to steam and electricity, Lincoln saves more than nine million gallons of fuel oil, while also reducing annual greenhouse gas emissions.
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