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C
ement production processes are some
of the most challenging, yet rewarding
applications to manage, operate, and
maintain. Aged equipment, such as gear
reducers, mounted bearings on a pulley shaft,
or industrial electric motors, will be subjected
to fine particles of dust, extreme temperature
fluctuations, and varying degrees of moisture
and condensation. All of these factors eventually
contribute to costly, unplanned downtime. Cement
plant personnel should have access to a clearly
defined emergency plan, developed for when
critical equipment used on important applications
catastrophically fails.
An aged gear reducer (Figure 1) is an item
of particular concern. This is because newer
technologies often render it to be too large (installed
real estate), obsolete (unsupported by a supplier),
unrepairable (or with costly repairs by a third-party
repair entity), too difficult to find replacement parts
(or there is a significantly long lead time for repair
parts), or unable to be removed from the application
shaft due to the type of attachment mechanism
being the more burdensome shrink disc.
Any or all of the above scenarios will eventually
occur at a cement plant, regardless of how well the
equipment is engineered, constructed, installed,
maintained, and operated. The good news is that
when it does occur, a simple shift in paradigm can
allow for a readily available replacement solution
that is affordable, AGMA‑certified, easy to install
(with little to no field modification), power dense,
efficient, and most important, when optimally sized
it will turn the application load without adversity.