Bearings
Found in millions of assets and a common failure point, UPTIME Consultant loves Bearings and eliminating their failure modes
If you are interested in asset reliability then you should be interested in Bearings.
Mechanical equipment employs many different types and standard of bearing depending on load, speed and other environmental factors.
They are so ubiquitous in engineered products that they often getting ignored, abused or mistreated, a similar story to lubrication.
Because of this many see bearings as 'consumables' to be changed out when failed, then rinse and repeat!
It shouldn't be this way, by taking a proactive approach from the design phase, through quality installation, with ongoing asset care these important items can enjoy an extended life cycle.
Sometimes the operating context is unclear to the OE manufacturer, when this happens the new asset can experience premature breakdown if the bearings specified do not fit the equipment use.
There are solutions out there and I make it part of UPTIME Consultant's holistic method to find solutions for clients.
If you would like to know more you can contact me HERE where we can discuss your bearing issues.
Mechanical equipment employs many different types and standard of bearing depending on load, speed and other environmental factors.
They are so ubiquitous in engineered products that they often getting ignored, abused or mistreated, a similar story to lubrication.
Because of this many see bearings as 'consumables' to be changed out when failed, then rinse and repeat!
It shouldn't be this way, by taking a proactive approach from the design phase, through quality installation, with ongoing asset care these important items can enjoy an extended life cycle.
Sometimes the operating context is unclear to the OE manufacturer, when this happens the new asset can experience premature breakdown if the bearings specified do not fit the equipment use.
There are solutions out there and I make it part of UPTIME Consultant's holistic method to find solutions for clients.
If you would like to know more you can contact me HERE where we can discuss your bearing issues.
Thermal video clip of Bearing Test Rig
Video captured with FLIR One on iPhone of extended lifecycle testing on a visit to EDT Corp headquarters in Vancouver WA
EDT Corp kindly invited UPTIME Consultant Ltd to visit their manufacturing headquarters in Vancouver, Washington State back in 2016.
It was great to witness the dedication and knowledge that goes into producing these innovative bearings and housings.
I first specified an EDT product about ten years ago when I worked at a PepsiCo facility, that resulted in multiple savings.
These bearings not only removed fixed PM lubrication tasks saving labour, but also removed unplanned downtime completely from some very critical assets that were prone to major collateral damage and product recalls with failing standard bearings.
Please get in touch to have a chat about your bearing issues where I can explain the proven return on investment in a case study I published.
Preventing Bearing Failures
Bearings in process areas operate in some of the most extreme environments that equipment has to withstand, their fine tolerances and moving elements can be prone to early failure even when they are well maintained to the manufacturers specifications.
Less than 10% of bearings reach the end of their designed lifetime with the 90% majority failing in random events, all the more reason to look after our bearings so they can withstand the rigours of process environment.
Original equipment manufacturers specify bearings that often prove to be unreliable over time, sometimes due to their design and the environment that they have to perform in. Equipment manufacturers work with cost constraints and usually can't dwell too long over the overall reliability of bearings, unfortunately they sometimes regarded bearings as consumables.
In operation if a Fryer or Oven has a collapsed bearing during production this has little or no impact on the original equipment manufacturer, but operations now have a big problem with the production schedule and customer.
I have previously worked on various cost studies and the benefits involved are multiple; labour, missed production, product cross off, quality issues, waste streams, utilities and ingredient loss, reactive labour is required to repair, safety issues in increased reactive work, permits to work, the list goes on... oh and you just hope you've retrieved all those missing bearing parts!
Original equipment manufacturers specify bearings that often prove to be unreliable over time, sometimes due to their design and the environment that they have to perform in. Equipment manufacturers work with cost constraints and usually can't dwell too long over the overall reliability of bearings, unfortunately they sometimes regarded bearings as consumables.
In operation if a Fryer or Oven has a collapsed bearing during production this has little or no impact on the original equipment manufacturer, but operations now have a big problem with the production schedule and customer.
I have previously worked on various cost studies and the benefits involved are multiple; labour, missed production, product cross off, quality issues, waste streams, utilities and ingredient loss, reactive labour is required to repair, safety issues in increased reactive work, permits to work, the list goes on... oh and you just hope you've retrieved all those missing bearing parts!
I have experienced multiple issues like this previously and when confronted with it I've always asked why?
Why does this happen?
Why do people put up with it?
Why is it deemed acceptable?
Why can't we eradicate these failures?
Some will say, "this is something that happens all the time and we make sure we have bearings in stock to hand". Remarkable!
Often the true cost of these incidents aren't known, no one ever looks that far, they knew it was painful, that it cost time and money, but they were fully in 'fire fighting' mode winning a battle but losing the war. And when the 'heroes' of the day are finished they're rewarded again for saving the day!
This is bizarre, so I set about finding a solution starting with the CMMS, then operators, maintenance, production, procurement and planning. Some were frustrated whilst others just accepted it as par for the course.
I learnt that there were multiple issues (there's never one Root Cause) that caused Fryer Bearings to collapse, some were due to the chemicals used in sanitation, failed seals, lack of lubricant, incorrect grease, planned maintenance instructions (PMs), production schedules, excessive heat, debris, incorrect parts, poor assembly or alignment; most of the problems though were due to environment. If I could fix that one failure mode we may have a winner.
The other issues were targeted at the same time by removing or editing the PM instructions to give precise information.
The OEM specified bearings were acceptable until the environmental issues impacted, then the lifespan became much reduced. Unplanned interventions to get the production line back up quickly introduced more issues that adversely effected the reliability.
Why does this happen?
Why do people put up with it?
Why is it deemed acceptable?
Why can't we eradicate these failures?
Some will say, "this is something that happens all the time and we make sure we have bearings in stock to hand". Remarkable!
Often the true cost of these incidents aren't known, no one ever looks that far, they knew it was painful, that it cost time and money, but they were fully in 'fire fighting' mode winning a battle but losing the war. And when the 'heroes' of the day are finished they're rewarded again for saving the day!
This is bizarre, so I set about finding a solution starting with the CMMS, then operators, maintenance, production, procurement and planning. Some were frustrated whilst others just accepted it as par for the course.
I learnt that there were multiple issues (there's never one Root Cause) that caused Fryer Bearings to collapse, some were due to the chemicals used in sanitation, failed seals, lack of lubricant, incorrect grease, planned maintenance instructions (PMs), production schedules, excessive heat, debris, incorrect parts, poor assembly or alignment; most of the problems though were due to environment. If I could fix that one failure mode we may have a winner.
The other issues were targeted at the same time by removing or editing the PM instructions to give precise information.
The OEM specified bearings were acceptable until the environmental issues impacted, then the lifespan became much reduced. Unplanned interventions to get the production line back up quickly introduced more issues that adversely effected the reliability.
My conclusion was that the standard lubricated bearings were not fit for purpose. Lack of lubrication over long periods in high temperatures were a killer, I searched for a no-lube or solid lube solution. I located a manufacturer that were remanufacturing standard bearings, engineering them with plain polymer inserts or filling the grease void with high temperature polymer. EDT Corp is a Washington State based manufacturer that was purchased by Timken Bearings in late 2016.
Additional cost was going to be involved, so I set about selling the benefits to the Engineering and Maintenance Managers; they agreed to a trial so I ordered a complete set to retro fit them into a hot oil fryer.
EDT Corp guaranteed 18 months between bearing changes, from the cost benefit I ran just one fryer bearing failure avoided would more than pay for the set of components; there were more than two per annum.
After the installation I removed multiple PMs including re-greasing and edited the instructions to be more descriptive.
Reducing expensive food grade grease use was one cost saving, with labour savings and unplanned downtime also.
What I did next was to share this information with all shift maintenance personnel so they knew to monitor this fryer and report back any issues at the PM inspections. None were reported, I planned another full bearing change at 18 months; due to production demand this was pushed out to 21 months. This was on the most critical fryer in production.
EDT Corp guaranteed 18 months between bearing changes, from the cost benefit I ran just one fryer bearing failure avoided would more than pay for the set of components; there were more than two per annum.
After the installation I removed multiple PMs including re-greasing and edited the instructions to be more descriptive.
Reducing expensive food grade grease use was one cost saving, with labour savings and unplanned downtime also.
What I did next was to share this information with all shift maintenance personnel so they knew to monitor this fryer and report back any issues at the PM inspections. None were reported, I planned another full bearing change at 18 months; due to production demand this was pushed out to 21 months. This was on the most critical fryer in production.
After the planned change I retrieved all the used bearing inserts, noted the locations they came from then removed the shields to examine the internals; all were in excellent condition with plenty of life left.
This study lead to the planned retro-fitting of another fryer that had also experienced major unplanned downtime due to bearing failures.
Confidence was high now that the payback was justified.
PMs on each fryer was cut by 40 hrs per year and the food grade lubricant spend reduced by £400 per fryer, bearing stock holds were reduced, confidence increased as operations became convinced that availability would not be impacted by further bearing failures.
I continued to track the reliability of all fryer bearings, the first fryer had a second refit four and a half years later with no unplanned interventions due to bearing failures.
Subsequent talks between production, engineering, projects and the manufacturers took place; after much discussion EDT Corp bearings were specified as an OEM part installed on new fryers.
Tracking the reliability over many years this bearing solution delivered over 23 years in total of reliable service across many critical assets, a remarkable achievement. Fryer breakdowns became a rare and unexpected occurrence.