Cement industry
Cement plant lubrication: why it deserves the attention
Lubricant is a few percent of running cost, yet poor lubrication is behind most maintenance cost. The numbers, and the five rights.
Small cost, big consequence
- Lubricants are reported to be only about 2 to 3 percent of running cost in cement machines.
- Up to about 70 percent of maintenance cost is reported to stem from poor lubrication.
- Plants aim for around 85 percent overall equipment effectiveness on process-critical machines such as vertical roller mills.
- These are industry-reported figures, so treat them as indicative and compare with your own maintenance records.
Why the stakes are high
A cement plant has only one or two kilns and often one or two main mills. An unplanned outage on any of them stops the plant. Lubrication is the cheapest insurance on those machines.
The five rights
The right lubricant, in the right amount, with the right method, at the right time, to the right lubrication point.
The manual burden
A manual round takes about 20 to 40 minutes per machine per cycle. Moving to automatic lubrication removes the manual round, reduces the accident risk of working near moving equipment and frees mechanics for other work.
Takeaway. The cheapest line in the maintenance budget protects the most expensive machines.
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