Bearing Failure Analysis and Redesign Improves Plant Availability

Customer Success Story

Sasin Mine Co., Ltd., established in 2004, is located in the Phrae Province in northern Thailand. The company is engaged in exploring and producing barite for the petroleum drilling industry.

Benefits
Challenge
Solution and What's Special
Savings
Technical Information
Download
Contact

Benefits

With the help of the Schaeffler engineers, Sasin Mine improved the design of their vibrating screens, which led to enhanced durability of both the bearings and the machine. As a result, the bearing service life now exceeds the expected 12 months.

Challenge

The customer claimed the quality of the FAG bearings inside his vibrating screen. This was based on the wrong presumption, that six bearings failed due to quality defects within only one month even though the expected service life was specified to be one year. The damage was detected due to high temperature development (above 100 degrees Celsius) and unusual noise during operation. The dismantled bearings showed signs of severe fatigue. Even after installing replacement bearings, changing the lubricant and applying it on a more frequent basis, the problems remained.

Solution

Schaeffler arranged an on-site visit to collect technical field-data from the malfunctioning machine. Based on their findings, an ‘Official Bearing Failure Analysis Report’ was created by the Schaeffler Technology Center in Bangkok. It revealed that the FAG bearings failed due to excessive axial loads. This was not due to the bearings being incorrectly dimensioned, but rather resulted from the fact that the bearing support did not allow a floating displacement on the shaft, which was identified to be the root cause of the problem. Accordingly, the special Schaeffler calculation software BEARINX was employed to optimize the design of the bearing arrangement. Following a redesign of the mating parts by the Schaeffler engineers, an appropriate locating / non-locating bearing arrangement was realized.

Vibrating screen at Sasin Mine site
FAG spherical roller bearing for vibrating screens
Shaft system modulation using BEARINX calculation software

What's Special

Sasin Mine was so satisfied with Schaeffler’s service that it decided to strengthen its business ties with Schaeffler. In the future, all machines at Sasin Mine will be equipped with Schaeffler bearings exclusively.

Schaeffler has in-depth knowledge of the mining industry and offers tailor-made solutions. The portfolio comprises e.g. spherical roller bearings specifically designed for vibrating screens and a special lubricant, Arcanol VIB3, which is suited especially for oscillating bearings.

Savings

By applying the Schaeffler solution, Sasin Mine now saves money due to averted
multiple (monthly) downtimes. In figures:

Hourly output per screen:	approx. 40 t	€ 2 000
Loss for 24 hours downtime:	approx. 960 t	€ 48 000
Maintenance time for bearing replacement:	1 day	€ 48 000
Repair time in the event of subsequent damage to shaft and housing:	2 days	€ 96 000

Technical Information

Technical Information for the Vibrating Screen
Type: Circle-throw vibrating screen
Shaft speed: 1 100 rpm
Operating time: 24 hours/7 days
Production output: 40 tons/hour

Technical Information for the Solution
Technical consulting:

On-site inspection
Submission of official bearing failure analysis report
Redesign of the shaft and housing geometry (BEARINX)
Technical advice
Supply of special mounting and dismounting tools

Bearing:
FAG spherical roller bearings for vibrating screens (FAG 23322-AS-MA-T41A)
Maintenance tools:

FAG HEATER40 (induction heating device)
FAG Bearing Mate

Download

Bearing Failure Analysis and Redesign Improves Plant Availability
Download

Contact

Our Schaeffler Lifetime Solutions customer support is ready to help you implement your predictive maintenance strategy and solution.

How can we help you?

Do you have any questions about our products or solutions? Feel free to contact us anytime!