The Situation
A site handling in excess of seventy-five thousand tonnes of fresh vegetables every year, was suffering frequent bearing failures on their processing lines. On average, bearings were needing to be removed and replaced once every three months. As a result, the annual spend on new bearings was beginning to cause concern, as was the leadtime involved in sourcing like-for-like replacements. Unplanned machinery downtime affecting key areas of the operation was incredibly costly for a facility fulfilling such large contracted output volumes.
The Solution
The Prep General Manager at the site contacted the team at the local HAYLEY DEXIS branch in Bury St.Edmunds. The team promptly arranged a site visit, to better understand the requirements. During the visit, it was identified that the washdown procedure that the machinery was being subjected to was washing the grease out of the bearings and causing them to fail prematurely. SENTINEL bearing units from NTN were recommended as the ideal solution as they are lubricated for life and sealed to better protect against water ingress. An order was placed to swap the bearings to NTN SENTINEL, and this was facilitated with next-day delivery from HAYLEY DEXIS stock.
"BEARING SERVICE LIFE HAS BEEN DRASTICALLY IMPROVED, THANKS TO NTN SENTINEL."
The Result
The site’s washdown procedure will no longer netatively affect the health and operation of the bearings, increasing their service life as a result. As the bearings will require less maintenance and far fewer replacements, the total cost of ownership has been significantly reduced. This total is estimated to be around £32,000 per year. With NTN sentinel bearings also being readily available off-the-shelf from HAYLEY DEXIS, the customer can enjoy shorter leadtimes on sourcing new bearings.