Castrol achieves extended life on conveyor gearbox and increase production

The solution increased production without the need for the replacement of equipment to cater for the higher tonnes, with a total saving of ZAR 9m.

Application

The two conveyor drives – primary and secondary – lubricant was changed from a normal mineral oil to a high performance oil with PD technology.

IDENTIFY

By working collaboratively with the customer, the two conveyor drives were identified as a bottleneck in the increased production. The original design was for 30,000 tonnes per day and the plan was to increase up to 38,000 tonnes. Planning started to replace the two drives as the running temperatures indicated overloading and imminent failure.

AGREE

It was agreed to use a high performance lubricant initially Tribol 1100-460 later changed to Castrol Synthetic PD 320. The rationale was that a high performance lubricant will reduce the friction, by the better additive package and the PAO that was finally used will reduce the friction more, and increase the load carrying capability of the unit.

DELIVER

The initial trail showed a reduction in operating temperature of 15°C at the increased production. Resulting in the continued use of the original two gear drives with no failure and a direct cost saving of ZAR 9 M.

The Synthetic PD 320 further reduced the energy demand as well with a resultant saving of 4% as verified by the M&V team.