Automatic bearing lubrication brings ore inspiring results in mining

Hungarian energy provider Mátrai Erm Zrt. operates one of the largest power plants in its homeland: the Mátrai plant has a power generation capacity of around 950MW and is supplied with lignite by opencast mines in Visonta and Bükkábrány. In addition to lignite, the power plant also uses biomass, photovoltaics and natural in its generation activity and employs around 2,000 people.

At the opencast mine in Visonta, the drive motors that power the belt pulleys along 40Km of conveyor belt are constantly moving. As a result, it needs appropriate lubrication to cater for the harsh operating conditions, and historically the operator has used electrochemically driven lubricant cartridges for the electric motors. However, a significant disadvantage of this method is that the automatic single point lubrication systems do not always operate smoothly due to fluctuating outside air temperatures.

To solve the challenge, Schaeffler recommended the use of the company’s CONCEPT2, a two-point automatic lubrication system filled with Arcanol lubricant. This allows continuous (and reliable) lubrication of the bearings in the drive motors and belt pulleys, as well as in the paddle wheel in the excavator itself during operation. The bearings fitted include deep groove ball-type, cylindrical rollers and spherical rollers. In total, Schaeffler installed 65 of its CONCEPT2 lubrication systems for the electric motors, with and additional 130 of its CONCEPT8 lubrication systems installed to lubricate the rope pulley bearings. The fitting of the lubrication systems and the replacement of the lubricant cartridges was carried out by Schaeffler’s authorised local sales partner, Euro-Borsod Trade Kft.

Schaeffler observes that its customer was “particularly convinced by the ease of operation and the robust design of the CONCEPT2 lubrication system”, citing the primary benefits to its customer as including the prevention of unplanned downtime together with longer bearing life. The automatic lubrication, irrespective of the outside air temperature also led to a reduction in downtime for repairs. A further benefit is that the personnel previously assigned to the task of manual lubrication are now deployed on other important tasks at the plant. There are plans to install further lubrication systems at the Visonta power plant for some of its large fans and motors.