Polytron Lithium Complex Grease prevented frequent breakdown of a lignite crusher mill.
Customer
Public Power Corporation, Greece
Steam Electric Station Units I-II-III
Equipment: Lignite crusher mill driven by a 2 MW electric motor.
Products Used
Polytron Lithium Complex Grease
The Challenge
The shaft of the electric motor is supported by 4 bearings lubricated by an automatic greasing system. 3 bearings on the front side of the crusher mill and one on its rear side. Due to heat, dust and heavy loads, part of the grease was caking and hardening, losing its lubrication ability, resulting with catastrophic failure of at least one of the bearings followed by costly repair, downtime and shortage of supply lignite the 300 MW unit during that time.
The Polytron Solution
Since by that time the company had already some experience with Polytron Lubrication Technology, to try and solve this ongoing problem, it was decided to replace existing grease with Polytron EP-2 Lithium Complex Grease. As a result, the operating temperature of the bearings dropped by approximately 7 0C below the average temperature recorded in other mills where they used other well-known brand greases, during the hottest summer days.
Customer Feedback
“The mill operates for over a year now without any overheating and grease breakdown problems “ Reported a year later Mr. Bill Katsaros, Mechanical Engineer responsible for this lignite crusher mill.
Original supporting document is available upon request.
