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Today's e-newsletter is sponsored by... Welcome to the PEM E-Newsletter!
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| Canadian Tire uses maintenance best practices to ensure operation of the 1.25 million square-foot A.J. Billes DC in Brampton, ON. |
You will soon receive the PEM February issue. The issue includes profile stories on Canadian Tire and the City of Mississauga—the winners of the PEM 2006 Maintenance Awards.
Being named a winner of the awards offers many benefits. For example, the winning maintenance teams receive one free pass to the MainTrain 2007 conference in Toronto. They also receive cool prizes for the team, a plaque and a follow-up story in PEM. It's a win-win scenario all round.
There's another advantage: you help to foster maintenance team goodwill and achievement. You can't put a price tag on that. Here's a good example. At the MainTrain 2006 conference in November, all 100+ members of the Canadian Tire maintenance team proudly rushed forward to accept their plaque with their manager (Ken Desloges).
If you still need convincing, I'm sure the folks at Canadian Tire and the City of Mississauga will tell you that their involvement in the awards was a positive and rewarding experience!
PEM 2007 Maintenance Award Guidelines
• How big is your maintenance department? Tell us about your operating structure.
• Why is your maintenance team better than the rest (i.e. quality, innovation and performance)?
• Tell us about a maintenance team success story.
• What kind of maintenance best practices and tools are you using and why?
• How have you reduced asset management costs and improved equipment uptime?
• What kind of return on investment (ROI), equipment reliability and production capacity improvements have been achieved?
Submission Deadline:
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2007
MainTrain 2007
November 26-29, 2007
VISIT: WWW.MAINTRAIN.CA
Get on board, the MainTrain is roaring back to Toronto! MainTrain is Canada's premier annual learning event and conference for maintenance and reliability professionals from across Canada. MainTrain 2006 was the best yet. Don't miss out this year!
MainTrain Platinum Sponsors:
MainTrain Workshop Sponsor:
MainTrain Gold Sponsor:
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| From left: Tom Johnstone, SKF president and CEO and PEM editor Robert Robertson at the SKF press conference in Göteborg, Sweden. | Lars Berntsson, M.Sc., provided Canadian editors with a guided tour of SKF’s main production plant in Göteborg. |
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| If you have the chance to visit SKF in Sweden, make sure you check out the informative display that's available to visitors. You won't be disappointed. | Karen and Jan Lindhe of SKF Canada attended the 100th anniversary gala with Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia in attendance. | From left: Gord Duncan, Kinecor LP; Pierre Bouchard, General Bearing Service; Jan Lindhe, SKF Canada; and Farrokh Khalili, Canadian Bearings also attended the SKF gala dinner. |
Industry News
SKF celebrates its 100th anniversary around the world
Göteborg, Sweden—When SKF was established on February 16, 1907, it was with an offer not only of a revolutionary new bearing, but also of the technical support and service to get the most value out of it. One hundred years later, providing service is as essential to SKF as the product itself.
But when Swedish engineer and founder of SKF, Sven Wingquist, invented the self-aligning ball bearing in 1907, service was far from a matter of course. At that time, most of the suppliers of mechanical components just sold their products. Then it was up to the customer to learn—often through trial and error—how to put it to use.
Wingquist, on the other hand, knew that being in the forefront of technology, having a keen knowledge of customer needs, as well as offering technical support and service, would pay off in the long run. This strategy has worked for SKF. Over the years, the company has also come a long way.
“As in 1907, SKF is dedicated today to help customers get optimal value out of their investments,” says Tom Johnstone, president and CEO of SKF. “So over a hundred years, there’s a straight line that combines cutting-edge technology with an exact knowledge of customer-service needs. This leads to knowledge-engineering solutions.”
While SKF celebrated its 100th anniversary in the many countries it serves, Sweden was the place to be to discover what the company has planned for the future. At the forefront was the announcement that SKF will soon bring to market a new family of “green” bearings, which reduce energy consumption by at least 30 percent compared to standard ISO products, says the company.
This new bearing family comprises the two bearing types that are most widely used in the world: deep-groove ball bearings and tapered-roller bearings. According to SKF, manufacturing of the new bearings will start in the second half of 2007. SKF also says the European Commission's LIFE-Environment program 2006 supports its efforts to lower machinery energy consumption.
“Innovation isn’t new to SKF and bearings have been the core of the company in the past—today and tomorrow,” says Johnstone. “With this announcement, you could say that SKF started its first 100 years with an innovation—and we have started our second 100 years with another innovation. Energy is a top issue for industry. At SKF, energy will be a big focus in the future.
“This new family of bearings is the result of a focused effort from the SKF organizations to develop a new bearing family, that while maintaining the service life and load carrying capacity of standard ISO bearings, will substantially reduce energy consumption. Our goal is to reduce world energy consumption and customer energy costs.”
Tapered-roller bearings
The bearings will deliver energy savings on average of at least 30 percent. SKF says it will initially target industrial segments where applications exceed 1 MW of power consumption. Such applications include heavy industry (i.e. railway, ships, wind energy, conveyors, and extruders). The initial size range will be 200-600 mm outside diameter and SKF is expected to first apply the bearings in wind turbines.
SKF says to consider the potential of the bearings being used in all of the existing global wind turbines operating at the end of 2006. According to SKF, if the bearings in the gearboxes of these turbines could be replaced by SKF energy efficient tapered-roller bearings—they would generate an estimated extra 770 million kWh per year. This is equivalent to the total energy consumption of one million Swedish households for a single month.
The technical improvements of the bearings that deliver the energy savings include: surface topography; raceway profiles and geometry, together with a special polymer cage; and an optimized set of rollers. The optimized roller set means a lighter bearing, which itself is more energy efficient because it takes less power to move the rolling elements, says SKF. It also lowers inertia of the moving parts, reducing the chance of skidding and smearing that would otherwise affect performance and service life.
Deep-groove ball bearings
The bearings will deliver energy savings on average of at least 30 percent. SKF says it will initially target light-loaded applications, with the first including industrial electrical motors that drive machinery in many sectors. Production will initially cover the smaller diameter-sized series. SKF alludes to another example of potential energy savings.
SKF says to consider that the energy consumption of industrial motor-driven systems in the U.S. and European Union is 1.36 million kWh per year. If these motors used SKF energy efficient deep-groove ball bearings, SKF says the estimated savings would be 2,460 million kWh per year. This is equivalent to the total energy consumption of more than three million Swedish households for one month.
“Two years ago at the SKF annual general meeting, we launched the BeyondZero initiative. In short, this means that the energy savings from the products and solutions that SKF supplies to its customers will be greater than the SKF Group’s own energy consumption,” says Johnstone. “It means more than being energy neutral—it means being energy positive. These new innovations launched today will contribute to SKF achieving its BeyondZero target.”
Less is more at SKF facilities
For a number of years, SKF has worked together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to define new models to evaluate and measure the energy use of systems. This includes the development of bearings where SKF determines the energy impact of any change in design along the lifecycle—during manufacturing, in use and in the recycle stages. SKF also works closely with the School of Business, Economics and Law at Göteborg University and Chalmers University of Technology to further support its BeyondZero program.
“Climate change is real and a lot of Co2 emissions are going into the air—and will be there for 200 years, ” says David H. Marks, co-director, MIT Labs for Energy and the Environment. “The battle [energy] is going on right now and can’t be ignored. SKF isn’t waiting 50 years to reduce Co2 emissions—since 50 years will be too late.”
As part of the BeyondZero program, SKF has implemented a number of actions to reduce CO2 emissions and save energy in its production facilities. Already in 13 factories, energy savings of 24 GWh have been achieved through the installation of more energy efficient pumps and motors; new heating and energy recovery systems; new exhaust systems, recovering what would be “waste heat”; reducing compressed air usage; and installing energy efficient lighting.
Most savings will come from improvements in the production lines where reducing the use of compressed air offers the biggest opportunity. There are also large savings to be made in machining and assembly. Here factory audits have shown that savings of five percent of the total energy consumption can be achieved in each factory. A series of actions are now in place to garner these savings (i.e. replacing pneumatic cylinders on positioning machines with SKF electromechanical actuators where the energy saving per machine is 35 percent).
The expected total savings will be made systematically with a transition to more energy efficient processes and an increased focus placed on energy conversion efficiency across SKF’s plants. Due to the need to make the changes, while continuing manufacturing, the improvements have to be made sequentially and are expected to deliver a 15 percent saving, in terms of SKF’s current energy consumption within three years.
New technologies will contribute heavily to future energy savings. Results from new heat-treatment technology installed in Göteborg, Sweden have shown a significant reduction of distortion. This means less energy is required to produce the final product. The saving potential across the SKF group is estimated to be up to 60 GWh per year, which is two percent of the group's current energy consumption.
SKF is also continuously working on a number of other programs to reduce energy consumption within its own facilities. These programs include: changing windows; improving insulation; detecting leaks of compressed air in piping systems; more efficient heating and ventilation; the use of new technologies for heat treatment and grinding; and changing to green energy (Göteborg factory carbon-dioxide emissions were reduced by 60 percent); change to energy efficient pumps and motors; reduced use of compressed air; and intelligent machines, etc.
In 2005, SKF launched a target to reduce its Co2 emissions by five percent per annum. At that time, a reduction of seven percent was achieved; in 2006 the reduction was more than five percent. At the end of the day, SKF wants to lead energy efficiency change.
“The United Nations recent report on world climate shows that we have a problem and there are many views and discussions on the subject,” says SKF’s Johnstone. “Each of us, however, has to make a contribution and this is the start of ours. We have developed and can offer technical solutions that can significantly reduce energy consumption. In addition, we’re addressing our own energy consumption to reduce Co2 emissions.”
Robert Robertson is PEM editor. You can reach him by email: rrobertson@clbmedia.ca.
PTDA announces year-end industry results
Chicago, IL—The Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) released 2006 year-end trend data for distributors and manufacturers of power transmission/motion control (PT/MC) products in the U.S. and Canada.
Following the previous year's annual increase of 10.7 percent, U.S. distributors saw a 10.2 percent increase in PT/MC product sales in 2006. The annualized sales-to-inventory ratio for 2006 dropped to 7.3 compared to 7.7 in 2005.
Canadian distributors also continued the trend of growth in PT/MC sales with a 2006 increase of 8.9 percent. As with the U.S. market, the annualized sales-to-inventory ratio for Canadian distributors also showed a slight decline from 7.5 in 2005 to 7.1 in 2006.
U.S. manufacturers experienced sales growth in 2006 although at a slower rate than in 2005. Year-to-date sales of PT/MC products were up 6.9 percent in 2006 versus a more robust growth rate of 9.6 percent in 2005. The same trend holds true for year-to-date orders of PT/MC products for U.S. manufacturers, gaining 3.9 percent in 2006 as compared to 11.3 percent in 2005. The annualized sales-to-inventory ratio dropped to 9.0 at year-end 2006 from 9.6 in 2005.
Canadian manufacturers continued to show positive sales growth although also at a slower rate. Year-to-date sales of PT/MC products in 2006 increased 1.0 percent versus a 3.4 percent increase in 2005. The annualized sales-to-inventory ratio jumped to 7.9 for Canadian manufacturers compared to 6.6 at the end of 2005.
In considering sales growth on a product-by-product basis for 2006, all product categories for U.S. manufacturers showed positive growth. For Canadian manufacturers, only three categories—clutches and brakes, mechanical drive systems and other PT products and positioning systems/linear motion products—showed a reduction in sales.
Quick Canadian summary:
Positioning systems/linear motion products: -11.7%
Mechanical drive systems and other PT products: -6.4%
Clutches and brakes: -3.4%
Unmounted bearings: 0.5%
Mounted bearings: 3.4%
Gear products: 7.5%
Standard industrial motors: 9.1%
Shaft couplings: 10.5%
Variable-speed drives: 13.4%
For more information, visit www.ptda.org
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
May 4-8, 2007
BSA Convention
The
Bearing Specialists Association (BSA) will hold its annual convention
at the Marriott Marco Island Resort, Marco Island, FL. For more
information, contact the BSA at tel: (630) 858-3838; email: info@bsahome.org; Web site: www.bsahome.org.
Plant Maintenance & Design Engineering Show
The
show is Quebec's largest marketplace for plant maintenance and design
engineering equipment, supplies and services. The show will be held at
Place Bonaventure in Montreal. For more information, contact the
Society of Manufacturing Engineers toll free at (888) 322-7333.
PTDA Canadian Conference
The
PTDA Canadian conference has become the place where the Canadian power
transmission/motion control (PT/MC) industry meets. The PTDA Canadian
conference will be held at the Le Chateau Frontenac Hotel in Quebec
City. For more information, contact the PTDA at tel: (312) 516-2100;
email: ptda@ptda.org; Web site: www.ptda.org.
November 26-29, 2007
MainTrain 2007
Get on board, the MainTrain is roaring back to Toronto! MainTrain is Canada’s premier annual learning event and conference for maintenance and reliability professionals from across Canada. MainTrain 2006 was the best yet. Don’t miss out this year! MainTrain 2007 will be held at the Toronto Novotel Centre. For more information, contact the Plant Engineering and Maintenance Association of Canada (PEMAC) at tel: (905) 823-7255; email: mail@pemac.org; Web site: www.maintrain.ca.
Product Focus
Pen-style test tool
Fluke
Electronics Canada introduced its LVD2 Volt Light, a compact pen-style
tool that combines non-contact voltage detection from 90 to 600 volts
AC with a bright, white LED flashlight. Designed for industrial and
commercial use, the pocket-sized LVD2 Volt Light is CAT IV 600 V-rated,
making it a handy tool for quickly checking for the presence of voltage
in industrial and commercial environments, says the company. The LVD2
Volt Light features dual levels of detection, glowing blue to indicate
proximity (within five inches) to an AC-voltage source, and changing to
red when it's at the source (within one inch). This enables users to
quickly and conveniently check for the presence of AC voltage without
the risk of contact with a voltage source, says the company.
www.flukecanada.ca
PEM Subscription
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