A major snack food producer has achieved significant cost savings of over €130,000 by implementing NSK Life-Lube housed bearing units, resulting in the elimination of production losses caused by repeated bearing failures on its cutter lines. This switch to NSK bearings has proven highly successful and has greatly improved the efficiency of the plant’s operations.
As part of NSK’s Added Value Programme (AIP), the company’s experienced engineering team conducted a thorough process map survey on-site, focusing on investigating the cause of the bearing failures. The analysis revealed that grease expulsion, caused by the line wash-down procedures, was the key issue. The bearings were being replaced every six weeks during routine planned maintenance as a preventive measure, but sometimes failures occurred earlier than expected, leading to substantial production downtime and associated costs.
In response to this challenge, NSK proposed replacing the existing bearings with their Life-Lube housed bearing units. The Life-Lube series combines NSK’s Silver-Lube thermoplastic (paint-free) housings with Molded-Oil inserts, which feature a solid lubricant. This proprietary material contains lubricant and a polyolefin resin with an affinity for oil. It ensures a steady and continuous release of grease over an extended period, thereby maintaining a clean operating environment without needing replenishment or allowing any lubricant to escape.
The Life-Lube units are specifically designed for applications where contact with water and process fluids is unavoidable, and when long lubricant life is essential. In this particular case, NSK identified Life-Lube as the ideal solution for the snack food plant’s cutter lines due to their frequent detergent-based wash-down procedures.
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the Life-Lube housed bearing units, NSK proposed a trial on one of the snack food plant’s three cutter lines. The trial aimed to monitor the performance and determine the suitability of these bearings. After a year of operation, the bearings continued to perform exceptionally well, with no failures reported. As a result, the plant entirely eliminated production downtime and experienced significantly reduced costs for parts and maintenance labor. The annual savings achieved by the plant amount to an impressive €134,478 (£116,450). This remarkable success led to the implementation of NSK Life-Lube housed bearing units on the other two cutter lines in the snack food plant.
In conclusion, the adoption of NSK’s Life-Lube housed bearing units in the snack food plant has proven to be a game-changer, with substantial cost savings and the complete elimination of production downtime. This success highlights the effectiveness and suitability of NSK’s innovative bearing solutions for the food manufacturing industry.
