Quick turn-around bearing change
One cylindrical roller bearing supporting the main rotor failed while the unit was operating.
The outage meant that the car shredding operation ceased, and it was critical to remedy the fault urgently.
- The rotor was removed from the machine and transported to the Qualtex workshop facility for remedial work to take place.
- Qualtex’s in-house specialised hydraulic nuts were utilised to extract the bearing inner race mounting sleeves.
- The bearing housing internal diameters were damaged and out of acceptable tolerances. Qualtex engineers built up the bores and re-machined them to achieve the internal dimensions required.
- The bearing sleeve had rotated on the shaft and consequently had picked up depositing metal onto the journal. The shaft had to be dressed and re-polished before new bearings were fitted.
- Some of the bearing caps and labyrinths were severely damaged and Qualtex technicians manufactured new items.
- The rotor assembly was then transported back to site, reinstalled and aligned precisely.
- Commissioning checks were carried out to ensure the machine was operating correctly.
The bulk of the repair work was carried out over the course of a single weekend, ensuring the unplanned outage and business interruption was minimised and production wasn’t significantly affected.