Split sphericals save €220,000 for chemical plant

The solid spherical roller bearing, which had an outside diameter of 230mm, needed replacing urgently. In the past, if the bearings were worn or damaged, the customer replaced these with similar solid (unsplit) spherical roller bearings. Each bearing replacement resulted in 14h of downtime, which cost around €280,000. This figure not only included the cost of production downtime, but the additional costs relating to labour, alignment of the shaft, crane hire and the costs of an additional replacement bearing.

By replacing the solid spherical roller bearing with a split spherical roller bearing from Schaeffler, the chemical plant reduced downtime to just 3h, with overall costs of €60,000. The costs of additional alignment, crane hire and a replacement bearing were not required this time, so the customer saved about €220,000 by using split spherical roller bearings.