SKF conveyor industry study:
The cost of bearing failures
SKF recently studied the performance of large conveyors in port and mining applications to determine the causes of bearing failure and cost of downtime and repairs. The study, which included five major mining operations and seven ports, focused on different pulley bearings in conveyors with an average of 20 positions. The study revealed that operators would prefer to replace the bearings every four years during pulley replacement. However, the bearings often fail prematurely and unplanned downtime is the result. In most cases, premature failures were due to inadequate sealing and the ingress of contaminants into the bearing cavity. Mining operations have the highest costs related to unplanned bearing replacement, often losing a full eight hours of production per replacement. As shown below, that unplanned downtime can result in more than (90 000 euros) in costs.
