Field case · Condition monitoring
Ball mill main bearing: damage found from the first measurement and replaced in the planned stop
Quick answer
An 850 mm output main bearing on a 60 tonne ball mill at 20 rpm showed outer race damage from day one. Trending bought months to order the bearing and fit it in the planned shutdown, avoiding an unplanned stop worth over R6 million.
What the case covers
- The application
- The start of condition monitoring
- Trending bought time
- The teardown
- The economics (reported)
- What to take from it
Takeaway. The same 35 hour repair costs little if planned and about R173,000 for every hour if unplanned. Early diagnosis plus trending turned a possible R6 million stop into a planned job.
Read the full case, with the data and the numbers