Bearings cut cost of machinery ownership

Peter Cox Marketing is revolutionising the market for vegetable peeling machines with a re-engineered design that employs NSK's Molded-Oil bearings. The Molded-Oil bearings are improving overall machine reliability, and reducing the total cost of ownership of the machines. This is the result of reduced downtime, due to easier roller removal; and also reduced maintenance, as relubrication is no longer required. Peter Cox is Managing Director of the company that bears his name. He describes the design process that has resulted in the new improved machine. 'When we were considering a new design of vegetable peeler, we focused on several key areas that would benefit customers over the life of the machines'. 'What we were particularly keen to achieve was a combination of higher overall levels of reliability and reduced cost of ownership'. 'The reliability issue really centres on the operation of the rough-coated horizontal roller, which is the main element in our range of peeler machines'. 'The roller is up to 3m long; it is electrically driven and supported by rolling element bearings at both its drive and nondrive ends'. 'This arrangement generally works well; however, in the worst of operating environments wear on the roller can result in misalignment, a condition that impairs the life of the bearings, often causing them to fail prematurely'. 'The result is costly downtime, which is unacceptable in the pressurised food processing environments in which vegetable peelers are employed'. 'In our new design we wanted to solve this problem once and for all'. 'At the same time we also needed to find a solution to the maintenance problem of relubricating the drive-end bearings'. 'Relubrication took time and was not a good solution, environmentally, both in terms of the operating environment for the bearings (food) and the disposal of lubricant'. 'NSK offered advice and support on both of these problems and, more importantly, provided us with solutions'. NSK's primary area of focus was the drive-end of the machine, where the bearings could not be reached easily for lubrication purposes. As a result, a proprietary lubrication system was installed. This required regular attention from the machine operator. However, by replacing the drive-end bearings with NSK's Molded-Oil lubricated units, the lube system has become redundant, reducing costs, simplifying the design and reducing maintenance. The Molded-Oil bearings are environmentally friendly: 'fit and forget' units that are filled with a plastic containing lubricating oil. They are designed to enhance the performance of machinery and equipment in all types of environments, especially those exposed to contamination such as water or dust. Importantly, Molded-Oil bearings address the problem of loss of lubricant due to water ingress. This feature is particularly important on machines used in food processing, as it provides the benefits of increased reliability and longer maintenance free intervals. The same benefits are also being enjoyed on the nondrive end of the new vegetable peeler machine. In this area, spherical roller bearings (SRB) equipped with Molded-Oil are employed to replace ball bearings. The SRBs benefit the design with higher load capacity, and are also more tolerant to the misalignment that occurs as the roller wears. 'The engineered solution provided to Peter Cox clearly demonstrates the benefits of working with recognised bearing suppliers and authorised distributors', said Simon Grant, NSK's Area Sales Manager. 'The amount of engineering support provided by NSK and BSL Brammer, together with access to the latest technological bearing products, is a package that is simply not available from smaller bearing manufacturers and independent distributors'. 'In addition, by supplying an innovative bearing solution, BSL Brammer and NSK have provided a value-added service to the customer, solving his problems and increasing credibility in the marketplace'.