Diamond America recently completed the design and remanufacture of a competitor’s extruder gearbox for a manufacturing firm in the petro-chemical catalyst industry. The company was experiencing high degrees of wear to the gearbox’s bronze bushings due to the fact that the catalyst they were processing was passing through the seals and corroding the bronze. To service the gearbox often resulted in days of downtime and costly replacement fees. Diamond America’s solution was to use double seals and replace the bronze bushings with roller bearings, which are non-corrosive.
In addition, the gearbox was redesigned with future maintenance in mind. It is now isolated from the hopper as the shafts are now split and coupled. This allows for easy maintenance as the hopper can be completely disassembled without disturbing the new gearbox.
Overview: Changing the bronze bushings to roller bearings both ensures longer life by reducing the friction, which reduces power consumption. The double seal keeps the dust from migrating into the gearbox and attacking the bronze bushings both abrasively and corrosively, and maintenance and repair times will be cut from days to mere hours. In short: improved production at a lower cost.
