Food & Drink Processing & Packaging Issue 33 2021 | Page 26

Anyone for EXTRA Cake ?

After a series of bearing failures and repeated downtime , a leading manufacturer of baked goods contacted Acorn Industrial Services to request a site visit . Following a preliminary meeting , ACORN undertook a process line mapping exercise to assess where improvements could be made to increase the uptime of the plant and reduce bearing failure .
The plant ’ s site manager believed that many bearings on the line were repeatedly failing as a result of contamination . The average lifespan of these bearings was just 10 weeks , with downtime and maintenance man-hours stacking up .
ACORN ’ s Bearing and Maintenance Product Manager , Andrew Fletcher , visited the site to investigate the 26 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk cause of the repeated bearing failures and to identify areas for improvement .
The area of most concern was their fondant machines . The machines were fitted with deep groove ball bearings equipped with 2RS seals . Although these machines were free from external contaminants , the bearings were covered in icing and flour , suggesting that they were becoming heavily contaminated . Meanwhile , frequent washdowns were causing the bearings to corrode . It quickly became apparent that none of the bearings in the plant were stainless steel . Stainless steel is typically the chosen material for a food production environment thanks to its high levels of corrosion resistance .
The situation was similar in the other areas of the production line , with bearings suffering from high levels of contamination without adequate protection , as well as being subject to corrosion . Without intervention , it ’ s likely that these bearings would continue to fail again and again , causing unnecessary downtime and loss of production for the plant .