BASF sees significant savings from alternative bearing design17 March 2014

One of BASF plants at the Port of Antwerp is reporting significant cost savings replacing failed bearings on its axial cooling tower fans since installing Revolvo SRB split roller bearings.

The devices greatly reduce the time and cost of replacing on large rotating machines – and with 25 similar applications across the site this is a big deal.

A spokesperson for the plant says that bearing failures were causing two days of downtime apiece while the replacement was carried out.

The reason: bearings supplied by the OEM were fitted with ineffective seals, which contributed to premature bearing failure. Hence the engineering review by a Revolvo application engineer, who suggested the change to SRB split roller bearings.

These, he said, would not only improve the service life of the bearing but also greatly reduce the time and cost required to change the bearing when replacement was required.

The most immediate improvement was the design of a more effective seal arrangement using a high performance labyrinth seal and Kevlar packing seals, so preventing dust and water ingress, which eliminated a major bearing failure mode.

However, the greatest savings have been in the reduction of downtime, which has been cut from two days to just two hours for the complete bearing replacement.

brian Tinham

Related Companies
BASF SE
Revolvo Ltd

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