igubal® in conveyor belt for roofing tiles

To date, an international roofing tile manufacturer has equipped its conveyor belts at various locations worldwide with metal pillow block bearings. During the roofing tile manufacturing process the conveyor belt is subject to extreme levels of dirt contamination which caused breakdowns each week. The manufacturer searched for an alternative that avoided costly downtimes in its two-shift operations.

Beforehand - metal bearings

Dirt adhered to the lubricated metal bearings and caused them to fail shortly afterwards.

Dirty metal bearings with lubricant

When metal bearings were used, the conveyor belts failed on a regular basis. As the bearings had to be lubricated, dirt collected at the bearing points. This regularly caused the failures and downtime. A solution was required to make the manufacturing process more reliable and keep it running.

Afterwards – igubal® polymer bearings

Self-lubricating igubal® bearings reduce the maintenance effort required.

The solution: bearings made of high-performance polymers

Since the metal bearings were replaced by self-lubricating igubal® spherical bearings with dry lubricants, there were no longer any hurdles to non-stop operation of the plant. At 70–80 rpm, the conveyor belts with the igubal® bearings have now been running fault-free for weeks. igubal® bearings have a particularly durable and and their service life is tested in the igus® test laboratory.