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Effects of Rotating Shaft Misalignment on Bearing Life and Lubricant Failure

Received: 22 April 2020     Accepted: 30 June 2020     Published: 18 August 2020
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Abstract

This study looks at plant and machinery at West African Mills Company Limited (WAMCO), with the view to identify sections within the factories with high cost of maintenance and provide a solution to reduce operating costs. Records of breakdowns at various sections of the plant were analysed and the first stage milling section at WAMCO II was found to have the highest cost of maintenance. On average, the breakdown of each of the three SCS4 grinding mills is about 14 times in a year. Furthermore, 27 bearings and 1.625 buckets of grease are used on the grinding mills alone costing an average of €10,000.00 annually on their maintenance. Some experiments were performed to ascertain how the rotating shaft misalignment occurs and the consequent change in parameters such as temperature, viscosity, power, and vibration. Bearing temperature readings at various misaligned shaft positions gave some indication of the criticality and likelihood of machine breakdowns. It was observed from the correlation analysis that there exist a strong positive relationship between the number of bearings, bucket of grease and man-hours used during breakdown and repairs. It was recommended that modern devices for monitoring be acquired and proper condition monitoring of the plant made to minimize the plant breakdowns and save money. Also, proper selection of bearing type for the mills should be looked at.

Published in American Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (Volume 4, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12
Page(s) 48-53
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Rotating Shaft, Maintenance, Misalignment, Bearing, Lubricant

References
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[3] Efficient Plant. Study Shows Shaft Misalignment Reduces Bearing Life. www.efficientplantmag.com/1999/04/study- shows-shaft-misalignment-reduces-bearing-life/(1999, Accessed March : 22, 2019).
[4] Verna A. K, Sarangi S and Kolekar M. Experimental Investigation of Misalignment Effects on Rotor Shaft Vibration and Stator Current Signature. J. Fail. Anal. Preven 2014; 14: 125-138.
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[6] Vakharia V, Gupta V. K and Kankar P. K, Ball Bearing Fault Diagnosis Using Supervised and Unsupervised Machine Learning Methods. Int. J Acou. Vib. 2015; 20: 244-250.
[7] Gamazo-Real, C. J, Vazquez-Sanchez, E and Gomez-Gil, J. Position and Speed Control of Brushless DC Motors Using Sensorless Techniques and Application Trends. Sensors 2010; 10 (7), 6901-6947.
[8] Piotrowski J, Shaft Alignment Handbook, 3rd Ed. Florida: CRC Press, 2006, pp. 862.
[9] Vogel B, Achieving proper alignment by detecting and correcting soft foot, http://www.easa.com, (2016, Accessed: March 30, 2019).
[10] Zou, K. H., Tuncali, K. and Silverman, S. G., 2003. Correlation and simple linear regression. Radiology, 227 (3), pp. 617-628.
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Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Anthony Simons, Henry Otoo, Solomon Nunoo, Ernest Ababio, Cyrus Addy. (2020). Effects of Rotating Shaft Misalignment on Bearing Life and Lubricant Failure. American Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, 4(3), 48-53. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12

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    ACS Style

    Anthony Simons; Henry Otoo; Solomon Nunoo; Ernest Ababio; Cyrus Addy. Effects of Rotating Shaft Misalignment on Bearing Life and Lubricant Failure. Am. J. Mech. Mater. Eng. 2020, 4(3), 48-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12

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    AMA Style

    Anthony Simons, Henry Otoo, Solomon Nunoo, Ernest Ababio, Cyrus Addy. Effects of Rotating Shaft Misalignment on Bearing Life and Lubricant Failure. Am J Mech Mater Eng. 2020;4(3):48-53. doi: 10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12,
      author = {Anthony Simons and Henry Otoo and Solomon Nunoo and Ernest Ababio and Cyrus Addy},
      title = {Effects of Rotating Shaft Misalignment on Bearing Life and Lubricant Failure},
      journal = {American Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering},
      volume = {4},
      number = {3},
      pages = {48-53},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajmme.20200403.12},
      abstract = {This study looks at plant and machinery at West African Mills Company Limited (WAMCO), with the view to identify sections within the factories with high cost of maintenance and provide a solution to reduce operating costs. Records of breakdowns at various sections of the plant were analysed and the first stage milling section at WAMCO II was found to have the highest cost of maintenance. On average, the breakdown of each of the three SCS4 grinding mills is about 14 times in a year. Furthermore, 27 bearings and 1.625 buckets of grease are used on the grinding mills alone costing an average of €10,000.00 annually on their maintenance. Some experiments were performed to ascertain how the rotating shaft misalignment occurs and the consequent change in parameters such as temperature, viscosity, power, and vibration. Bearing temperature readings at various misaligned shaft positions gave some indication of the criticality and likelihood of machine breakdowns. It was observed from the correlation analysis that there exist a strong positive relationship between the number of bearings, bucket of grease and man-hours used during breakdown and repairs. It was recommended that modern devices for monitoring be acquired and proper condition monitoring of the plant made to minimize the plant breakdowns and save money. Also, proper selection of bearing type for the mills should be looked at.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Effects of Rotating Shaft Misalignment on Bearing Life and Lubricant Failure
    AU  - Anthony Simons
    AU  - Henry Otoo
    AU  - Solomon Nunoo
    AU  - Ernest Ababio
    AU  - Cyrus Addy
    Y1  - 2020/08/18
    PY  - 2020
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12
    T2  - American Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering
    SP  - 48
    EP  - 53
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2639-9652
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajmme.20200403.12
    AB  - This study looks at plant and machinery at West African Mills Company Limited (WAMCO), with the view to identify sections within the factories with high cost of maintenance and provide a solution to reduce operating costs. Records of breakdowns at various sections of the plant were analysed and the first stage milling section at WAMCO II was found to have the highest cost of maintenance. On average, the breakdown of each of the three SCS4 grinding mills is about 14 times in a year. Furthermore, 27 bearings and 1.625 buckets of grease are used on the grinding mills alone costing an average of €10,000.00 annually on their maintenance. Some experiments were performed to ascertain how the rotating shaft misalignment occurs and the consequent change in parameters such as temperature, viscosity, power, and vibration. Bearing temperature readings at various misaligned shaft positions gave some indication of the criticality and likelihood of machine breakdowns. It was observed from the correlation analysis that there exist a strong positive relationship between the number of bearings, bucket of grease and man-hours used during breakdown and repairs. It was recommended that modern devices for monitoring be acquired and proper condition monitoring of the plant made to minimize the plant breakdowns and save money. Also, proper selection of bearing type for the mills should be looked at.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 3
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

  • Department of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

  • Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana

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