Testimonials
Holcim cement plant significantly reduced lubricant use and costs by switching to Pyroshield® Syn Kiln Lubricant.
key takeaways
Challenge
The plant faced excessive lubricant buildup on the pinion and gear, causing poor ventilation, increased lubricant usage, waste issues, and MSHA safety concerns, while hindering gear inspection and disrupting proper spray patterns.
LE solution
Kevin Chapin recommended Pyroshield® Syn Kiln Lubricant (9020) for its wear prevention and efficiency benefits, leading to reduced lubricant usage and maintenance time, with the company beginning its use on May 11, 2022.
Results
The company achieved an estimated annual savings of $63,588 by reducing lubricant consumption and eliminating unnecessary equipment, such as a $5,000 pressure relief unit, while improving gear visibility and lowering temperatures.
Customer Profile
The Holcim cement manufacturing plant in Whitehall, PA, has been in business since 1973 and has been an LE customer since 2015.
Application
The plant’s Fuller cement kiln has a large shrouded open gear with 12-foot diameter and 165-foot circumference. The pinion is 17 inches wide.
Challenge
The plant was experiencing a significant buildup of kiln lubricant on the pinion and gear. The lubricant they were using was the product of a major lubricant company that specializes in these types of applications. However, this lubricant was building up near the gear guard, causing poor ventilation around the gear. In turn, this led to excessive lubricant usage, waste issues, and lubricant leaking all over the pier. Leaking such as this is of concern to the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).
Because of all the buildup, maintenance workers were unable to clearly inspect the gear for wear and damage. In addition, the spray pattern from nozzles – if they were spraying at all – was not as it should be. Lubrication intervals were set at 10 cycle counts every 20 minutes.
LE Solution
Kevin Chapin, LE lubrication consultant, recommended Pyroshield® Syn Kiln Lubricant (9020) due to its ability to prevent wear without building up or leaking. This would enable the company to use less lubricant and spend less time on maintenance and housekeeping. The company agreed to try Pyroshield 9020 and started conversion May 11, 2022.
Pyroshield 9020 is a heavy-duty synthetic fluid designed to provide exceptional protection for high-load, heavy-shock, high-heat applications, particularly large open gears servicing kilns and ball mills. It is formulated with a synergistic mix of extreme pressure and wear-reducing additives, including solid particles of fine graphite and of Almasol®, LE’s exclusive wear-reducing solid additive.
Results
By June 8, less than one month later, the company had reduced lubricant consumption by seven times – going from seven drums to just one. One drum of Pyroshield 9020 was $5,299 less than seven drums of the previous product, representing an estimated annual savings of $63,588 on lubricant for a single kiln.
It took a week to break up the old lubricant, after which the gear was much more visible, and temperatures dropped by 6 degrees Fahrenheit. Intervals were changed to 3 cycle counts every 20 minutes – a 70% application reduction. The maintenance inspector and manager were extremely happy with the results and chose to move forward with the next kiln and their finish mills, for which they anticipate similar results.
In addition, the teams identified multiple redundancies with the lube application systems during the process of lubricant conversion. This included an unnecessary divider valve that was leaking and a very old pressure relief unit that would have cost over $5,000 to replace but was no longer needed; because of the conversion, they were able to get by with just four of these units.