The wine producer bottles the wine and uses a series of conveyors to transport the bottles through the production process. At the end of the system, the bottles are buffered and accumulated on a spiral conveyor. The spiral conveyor is driven by a roller chain. However, as it's a wet environment, the chains rapidly corrode and become subject to high friction, resulting in a short wear life.
The chain's position is difficult to reach from a maintenance perspective and, due to the wet environment, relubrication is difficult. With an irregular lubrication regime, combined with the corrosive conditions, the conveyor's chain required replacement every two years. Frequent chain replacement increased procurement costs and, because of the chain's difficult-to-access location, it also increased downtime, reducing the wine producer's productivity.
Read the full article in DPA's December issue