Customer Success Story
Early Detection of Bearing Damage Prevented Unplanned Failure and Costly Downtime
Construction materials manufacturer Holcim was seeking a condition monitoring solution for the vibrating screens in its cement plant in Hermosillo, Mexico. Specifically, Holcim wanted a solution that would more effectively predict and prevent catastrophic bearing failures. The company chose SmartCheck, Schaeffler‘s permanent predictive monitoring system. Shortly after SmartCheck was installed, the system detected an impending bearing failure at an early stage.
Annual savings: more than 43,000 US dollars.
SmartCheck helps us monitor the vibrating screens, saves repair costs, and drastically reduces unplanned downtime. SmartCheck‘s data is easily accessed and we are always informed about the machine‘s status. SmartCheck inspires me!
Alan Pacheco
Mainteance Manager, Holcim Mexico
Benefits
Customer benefits
Improved availability of the vibrating screens
Fewer catastrophic bearing failures
Longer Mean Time Between Repairs (MTBR)
Lower maintenance costs
Easy to operate
Challenge
In the past, the Hermosillo cement plant‘s maintenance department would take monthly vibration readings on its vibrating screens during plant inspections. Even though regular measurements were taken, the plant experienced three catastrophic bearing failures in its vibrating screens - in just one year! Unfortunately, theplant‘s monthly readings were momentary measurements that were not sufficient to detect the degradation of the bearings. To better monitor the vibrating screens - which are considered particularly critical due to the strong vibrations and their sensitive excitation mechanism - the Hermosillo cement plant‘s maintenance team sought out a new monitoring solution that would detect bearing degradation at an early stage in order to prevent unplanned downtime. To that end, they approached Schaeffler Mexico with this request.
Solution
Schaeffler Mexico recommended its SmartCheck permanent condition monitoring solution, a robust online monitoring system that detects abnormalities and changes in vibration behavior. The accompanying software identifies bearing damage early enough to prevent an unplanned shutdown.
What's Special
Without early detection of the bearing damage, other components could have been damaged. As a result, Holcim‘s maintenance team is more than satisfied with the SmartCheck solution. They also appreciate the easy-to-use Schaeffler software, which does not require expert knowledge in vibration analysis.
Savings
Savings: 43,160 $
(One-time $5,500 acquisition cost must be deducted from the above amount.)
This corresponds to an ROI of: 685 %
*Early detection: (Bearings only, planned, no overtime, etc)
Asset to Failure: (Bearings, shaft, gears, expedited parts, overtime)
