Case Study: Rugeley Power Station
Summary: Cleaning high viscosity transmission fluid in a coal crushing plant - eliminating gearbox failure.
Rugeley Power Station
UK
Application(s): Transmissions [Large Scale] Lubrication Oils
Industry(s): Transmission Power Generation
Notes
Rugeley Power were experiencing high failure rates of between 4 and 6 per annum of the gearboxes on their coal crushing mills.
Due to the high viscosity of the lube oil used in their re-circulating lube system (Breox IL460SW, viscosity ASTM D445 – 433@ 40°C, 63.7 @ 100°C ), low level micron barrier filtration could not be used, as a result a filtration system of 2 x 200 micron strainers & bar magnets was all that was employed.
When the Turbine Gears Ltd gearbox on mill 7.6 was brought back on-line after being refurbished, a Magnom Process Unit was installed to remove in-built fine ferrous contaminant as well as contaminant that was system generated. This fine ferrous contamination is responsible for starting the cycle of wear that ultimately leads to catastrophic failure. These failures are measured at costing approximately £50k each.
After only 2 months the Magnom™ core was inspected.
To the surprise of all the engineers involved, upon removal, the core was found to be loaded with large amounts of ferrous contaminant. “I was very impressed to see how much debris the Magnom™ had captured in only a 2 month window” were the comments of the Head Maintenance Engineer.
As a testament to the performance of the Magnom™ Unit; within a matter of days other Magnom™ units were ordered for the remaining 14 coal crushing gearboxes.
Customer comments
“I was very impressed to see how much debris the Magnom™ had captured in only a 2 month window” [Head Maintenance Engineer]