Cleaning gear drives on the fly

When continuous operation is key, cleaning and maintaining open gear drives becomes a critical part of any operation. In the case of cement or mining plants, the reliability of open gear drives plays a crucial role in enabling the efficient operation of ball mills and rotary kilns. To ensure continuous production, effective lubrication and gear maintenance are vital. Klüber Lubrication has introduced a holistic five-step lubrication concept, offering a comprehensive solution for gear protection and cleaning, increasing the components’ lifetimes, and reducing wear – while also reducing downtime required for maintenance.

Operators of ball mills and rotary kilns in cement factories need to balance several factors in the maintenance of their machines: How much time can operators spend on cleaning, repairs, and mandatory check-ups for insurance companies before the ensuing downtime becomes too costly? Klüber Lubrication has developed innovative lubricants that are changing this calculation, making machines more productive without sacrificing reliability.

Klübersustain EZ 2-46 is a potent cleaning lubricant. It helps to reduce the time required for open gear cleaning whenever a producer is forced to do it and make this procedure safer. For example, it prepares open gears for nondestructive testing (NDT) without dangerous and time-consuming manual cleaning procedures.

It not only has excellent cleaning properties, but it also works under full load while the machine is in operation, meaning that machines do not have to be stopped during cleaning procedures. The procedure is safe and unnecessary production losses due to mill or kiln downtime can be avoided. This cleaning solution reduces open gear cleaning time drastically from as much as 80 hrs (in case of manual cleaning) to 4 hrs or in some cases even to zero. This is made possible by the high load-carrying capacity and protection against wear offered by Klübersustain EZ 2-46.

Furthermore, the lubricant is eco-friendly and manufactured with more than 70% renewable raw materials, making cleaning safer for users and the environment alike. As it is a biodegradable product, users will also have fewer worries associated with its disposal.

How the comprehensive lubrication concept works

The Klüber A-B-C-D-E approach contains five steps with different lubricants that fulfil important roles in the operation of a ball mill or rotating kiln driven by open gears. To deal with individual factors like the type of machine, stress, specific uses, and others, a variety of products made by Klüber are available for open gear operation or the cleaning needed for maintenance.

This starts – even before the gears have completed their first turn – with type A lubricants, which protect gears during equipment assembly and provide initial lubrication during start up, preventing damage to the tooth flanks. They also aid in assessing the load-carrying area and serve as a contrast lubricant for evaluating the dynamic contact pattern.

The type B lubricant, e.g. Klüberfluid B-F 2 Ultra, quickly optimises the load-carrying area and surface roughness of new gears, and can also relieve scuffing damage resulting from inadequate lubricant supply during operation. It ensures efficient operation during the running-in process, aiming for a load-carrying area of at least 80% of the tooth surface. Added special solids have a smoothing effect on the tooth flanks by targeted physical-mechanical material removal. The same principle can be used for gear drives that have been in operation for some time, correcting the roughness of the surfaces to enhance the contact area and to reduce friction in the long term.

A number of different lubricants can be used for stage C, which is actual equipment operation. The type C lubricant is the recommended operating lubricant after the running-in process, and its selection is based on factors such as operating temperature, ambient temperature, and application method. Today, high-viscosity transparent fluids are also used as operating lubricants. Klüber offers several types of synthetic lubricants that can be used for this task, taking advantage of the strengths of this new generation of synthetic fluids. They show good adhesion and the lubricant film has an enormous load-carrying capacity. These characteristics assure the lubricant offers high wear protection and can be used in high-temperature environments.

The type D reconditioning lubricant offers an alternative to mechanical treatments like grinding and milling for damaged tooth flank surfaces if the damage is not too severe. The advantage of this way of reconditioning gears is that it can be carried out during operation and can therefore extend the gear life without causing production losses due to lengthy downtimes for manual treatment.

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/special-reports/06102023/cleaning-gear-drives-on-the-fly/