Almost 2 years ago, the AESSEAL teams from South Africa and UK embarked on a challenging project set out by one of its biggest customers in South Africa. During this time, the team from AESSEAL South Africa had worked side by side with the Labtecta Bearing Protection Unit in the UK to come to a solution for one of the biggest environmental impacting problems on the customer’s plant – preventing over 30 litres of oil leaks every month, and this was at just one of its plant equipment.
Constant gearbox oil leaked from the equipment directly onto the workshop floor and work areas, creating an extremely dangerous slipping and tripping hazard within the work area. To add to this, the environmental impact of the leaking oil grew day by day, where an estimate 360 litres worth of oil was lost annually.
The AESSEAL team from South Africa had to work under immense difficult working conditions due to the extreme heat on the plant and the wear of full safety gear also didn’t make the heat more bearable. To add to this, because of the size of the installation, they had to obtain a crane to remove the coupling guard and bearing split spacer that had a combined weight in excess of 240kg.
The removal of the existing Labyrinth, the installation of the new Labtecta and checking the gearbox shaft for correct shaft tolerances took a little more than 4 hours for completion. In addition to the Labtecta installation, AESSEAL also installed an oil recirculation line to not only prevent oil getting onto the floor, but to also recirculate the oil back into the gearbox, which in turn has a great cost saving, as the oil levels remain the same and no further top-up is required.
The Labtecta is currently on a 6-month trial where a 2-weekly check is conducted by an AESSEAL Representative to inspect the seal for any leaks or further complications. It can be reported that there are no oil leaks evident, contributing to not only a save and clean working environment but also saving the customer money and time.
AESSEAL and its team is of the firm believe that installation solutions like these will undeniably support companies with practical cost savings solutions, as well as addressing the environmental impact that oil leaks like these cause.