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Ball Bearing Systems Changed Over Easily
An adapter-mounted ball bearing system's reliability and easy-change system has cut costs on maintaining tyre shredding machines at a leading UK tyre recycler.
An innovative adapter-mounted ball bearing system has transformed the economics of maintaining Sapphire Energy Recovery's tyre shredding machines. By changing over to the Dodge Grip Tight bearing, has completely solved a recurrent and expensive repair problem, said Baldor UK. The Dodge Grip Tight bearing features a flinger seal and a built-in mechanism for removing the bearing from the shaft.
Sapphire Energy Recovery operates high-throughput shredding machines in four major conurbations throughout the UK, to process end-of-life car and van tyres into chips.These chips are then used as an alternative to coal in cement manufacture.After shredding, the tyre chips are graded for size by a classifier, which has 36 sets of bearings.
The problem was that fine metal wires in the tyres, and the water used for cooling, were damaging the classifier shafts' set-screw style bearings.Bearing life was typically under 6 months, said Baldor.
Changing the classifier bearings could then take anything up to 2h per bearing, according to the problems encountered and the skill of the operators.Corrosion sometimes meant that the bearings needed to be loosened by heat, for example, and in some cases the whole shaft had to be replaced.
As Sapphire operates on a 24h day, addressing the planned and emergency maintenance requirements of these machines became a priority.
Sapphire's reliability manager, Andy Booth called in the specialist Dodge distributor, Bearing Transmission and Pneumatics, to discuss the problem.
Bearing Transmission and pneumatics suggested that Sapphire try a type of ball bearing from Baldor's range called the Dodge Grip Tight could be a better solution to the problem.
This adapter-style bearing has a mechanical maintenance feature that loosens it by simply turning a nut.The action automatically pulls the bearing off, avoiding any need for forcible removal or expansion heating - eliminating fretting corrosion and preventing shaft damage.
The bearings were a little more expensive more than the set screw type that Sapphire had been using, said Baldor to manufacturingtalk.com, but demonstrations and examples of field experience in the most hostile conditions convinced Booth that the easy-off mechanism would make changeovers a predictable operation.
Sapphire purchased some Grip Tight bearings and installed them as and when the previous bearings failed.
Although predictable maintenance was Booth's major requirement, it soon became obvious that the bearings offered a superior life too, as the life period came and went.
The Grip Tight 's built-in flinger seal is protecting the bearings in the hostile environment to such as en extent that they are lasting typically twice as long as the previous set screw types.
Now, following the use of Grip Tight over a period of some 24 months, and a number of maintenance changeovers, Booth knows that the Grip Tight justifies its reputation.
Now, changeovers are predictable and take only 15 min at the most, following production operator training including the time required to remove and refit machine casings.
Moreover, there has been no shaft damage to date, said Baldor.
'The aggressive nature of tyre shredding meant that repairing these machines was taking up far too much of our time, and reducing our productivity,' said Booth.
'Grip Tight bearings have given us back predictability of maintenance, with the welcome bonus of much longer life, protecting some of our company's most crucial assets.
Our operational team now has the time to be more proactive, focusing its major efforts on preventive maintenance rather than breakdown maintenance'.
Bearing Transmission and Pneumatics spokesman, Edward Fielding, commented: 'Our work means that we tend to see a lot of bearing failures, and we've come to regard the Dodge Grip Tight as a genuine problem solver.
Although the major requirement was to simplify changeover, this bearing also manages to survive much longer in very hostile operating conditions'.
* About Sapphire Energy Recovery - Sapphire Energy Recovery provides a sustainable solution to the tyre disposal problem - the inherent energy in the tyres is used to provide heat as part of the cement making process with the tyre's steel properties absorbed into the cement.
The tyres are effectively fully consumed during the energy recovery process and there is no waste.
The company was formed by Lafarge Cement UK and Michelin Tyre PLC as a joint venture, to recover and process end-of-life tyres for use as cement kiln fuel.
Since its inception in early 2001, the company has grown to become the UK's leading end of life car and van tyre processor.
Sapphire Energy Recovery Web site is .
* About Bearing Transmission and Pneumatics - Bearing Transmission and Pneumatics (BTP) offers a comprehensive range of bearings, power transmission products, seals, engineering tools and pneumatic control equipment from major manufacturers, and serves a wide variety of industrial and agricultural customers in the East Midlands region of the UK.It also provides a motor and gearbox repair and reconditioning service catering for both modern and obsolete products.
Headquartered in Derby, the company has branches in the UK at Lincoln and Burton-on-Trent.The wide product portfolio is backed by a range of value-added services including a stock management system and 24h delivery
| Product Model | Inside Diameter | Outside Diameter | Thickness |
| 906 bearing | 30 | 53 | 15.5 |
| 905 bearing | 25 | 48 | 15.5 |