Remanufacturing – Mining, mineral processing and cement

A carbon-efficient way to
salvage old spare parts

SAVING TIME,
MONEY,
AND CO2

Housing and bearings were possible to remanufacture to as-if-new condition for a fraction of the price of new components.

A cement plant in Turkey needed
to make a decision. Were the
used roller press bearings and
bearing housing in their ware-
house scrap, or could they be
rescued? A question with major
financial consequences. After
inspection, analysis, and reman-
ufacturing, the cement factory
now has as-good-as-new spare
parts in store, with the same
warranties, but at a fraction of roller press was dismounted for welding
the time, cost, and environmental cylindrical roller bearings were taken out
impact of new components.
Could it be used again? The maintenance
manager stood in front of the factory’s cus-
tom-made spare roller press bearing hous-
ing, wondering what to do with it. As in many
plants, storage circumstances were not per-
fect, and corrosion had struck both the out-
side of the housing and the inner surfaces.
Since the housing had been in service at
least once before, perhaps more, there were
also questions about ovality.
The business potential of used parts
The three spare bearings for the roller press
seemed to be in a better state, but no one
was sure. When fractures occurred on the
roller surface, the high-pressure grinding
repairs and the large 4-row oil lubricated
and labelled “unreliable” spare parts. The
maintenance manager now had to make a
decision about both the housing and the
bearings. Since a new housing can cost up to
100 000 euros, and a new bearing 18 000
euros, the question also had a substantial
financial impact.
The cement industry is no stranger to SKF;
and certainly not a factory with an annual
production capacity of 2.3 million tons of
clinker and 5.5 million tons of cement. “This is
one of the important cement factories in Tur-
key, in terms of production capacity and
product variety, and we visit them regularly.
Since we have such regular contact with the
industry, they know we speak the same lan-
guage, that we understand them, and know
their pain points.” says Burak, Technical man-
ager at SKF Turkey. Leaning on long-time
experience and deep knowledge of the busi-
ness, SKF had a solution for this problem too.
Remanufacturing services from SKF reduces both
costs and CO2 emissions.

Inspection, analysis, and a Saving time, money, and CO2

recommendation
Engineers from the local SKF office carried
out a thorough inspection of the bearings
and the housing, with the assistance of the
SKF Remanufacturing Service Centre in
Steyr, Austria. They inspected the bearings
for dents, cracks, and other damage and
measured and photographed them. After the
analysis, SKF concluded that the bearings
were possible to remanufacture to as-new
condition for a fraction of the price of new
bearings. Inspecting the bearing housing
also required a laser measurement to make
sure that the ovality was within limits.
Despite its bad condition, the housing was
also possible to rescue through a remanu-
facturing process.
The remanufacturing was done in Austria at
SKF’s remanufacturing facilities. Since the
remanufacturing process often only requires
10% of the processes needed to make a new
bearing, remanufacturing saved both time,
money, and the environment. In this case,
SKF returned the bearing housing to the
customer within 10 weeks, instead of the
whole year it would take to make a new one,
and with a price tag of a fifth of a new bear-
ing. The three bearings arrived back at the
factory at half the price of new bearings after
only 8 weeks, instead of the 6 months it
would take to get new ones. Through their
decision to remanufacture, the cement fac-
tory saved time and money and prevented
34 tons of CO2 emissions from entering the
atmosphere. Now factory management has
their spare part situation sorted for the roller
press, and the maintenance manager can
focus his attention on other matters.

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PUB 73/S6 19240 EN · October 2021