Downtime chewed off

By installing bearing lubricators and vibration monitoring equipment on its production machinery, chewing gum maker Gumlink has eliminated bearing defects and unplanned stoppages.

Gumlink A/S, based in Denmark, develops, produces and sells chewing gum products. The company was established in 1915 and currently employs around 600 people and has an annual turnover of around €140 million.

The 36,000 square-metre manufacturing plant handles up to 40,000 tonnes of chewing gum each year, so it is critical that production machines are kept running, free of any unplanned stoppages.

The plant has 15 machines that are responsible for placing sugar onto the chewing gum. There are three, 55kW fans on each machine. One fan blows the sugar in by air. The second extracts the air and the third regulates the pressure.

Before installing bearing lubricators and vibration monitoring equipment, the bearings on the fans were lasting for an average of 12 months. This was down to incorrect choice of grease, poor relubrication and contamination issues with the sugar. Due to the sugar in the air, there were also balancing and misalignment problems with the fans.