Speciality lubricant for the Animal Feed

An animal feed producer operates several units of pellet press machines, with high utilisation rates. These pellet pressing machines require high quantities of high-performance grease for rolling bearing lubrication. Both the bearings and grease are subjected to high loads, vibration and exposure from steam.

To ensure that the bearings are protected from damages due to lubrication starvation, they are re-lubricated at regular intervals of every five hours. The bearing life in the machines is less than forty days, notwithstanding the downtime and effort required to replace the bearings when a bearing is damaged. This affects the production output and incurs high costs for each downtime incident.

The business objective is to look for a cost-effective lubrication solution to improve the overall cost, reliability and productivity of the machines.

The solution provided by Klüber Lubrication is Klüberlub BE 41-402 BH due to its ability to:

• Withstand the high load of the press roll bearings
• Maintain its lubrication properties at high temperatures, up to 120 ˚C
• Protect the bearings and extend their life under the observed operating conditions and environment

Overall benefits and values:

• The high-performance grease protects the bearings from damage due to its ability to withstand high loads and temperatures, in a dusty environment
• Longer bearing life span is achieved and results in lower maintenance cost
•  The Production team is able to achieve their productivity targets due to reduced unplanned downtime.

One of the major players in the compound animal feed manufacturing purchased Klüberfood NH1 11-572, a food-grade lubricant, as a trial and we took the opportunity to conduct a study to monitor the outcome.

We have concluded the study with two major benefits:

1.   Reduction in bearing temperature which resulted in the extension of bearing lifetime

2.   Reduction in grease consumption in view of a higher viscosity grease. We also noticed a smaller amount of grease dried up within a similar re-lubrication timeframe

• The lubrication method was by manual greasing
• The interval of re-lubrication was once a day which is at the start of their shift

From the last trial calculations, we have achieved an estimated 53% annual savings on lubricant consumption and a reduction of temperature of about 7 - 8 ˚C on the bearing compared to the other brand used.