CA Group has a converting machine for the manufacture of steel sections for cladding, which contains a series of 20 spiral bevel gearboxes from Apex Dynamics. CA Group’s maintenance team identified a problem with the previous set-up, as the gearboxes were connected by a solid shaft all the way through, which did not allow for any flexibility of movement.
This flaw in the overall design meant that seals were under strain and often began to leak, leading to high failure rates.
Additionally, if a gearbox failed or a seal blew out, it would result in five to six hours of downtime to repair the machine, because of the difficulty of accessing the gearboxes to change them.
Read the full article in DPA's February issue