We are new at the game of reliability but have had some great finds as we are getting things started. We are an infant liquid formula plant which presents it challenges to motors in the filling areas. We recently started seeing many failures on our small hp conveyor motors. We took these failed motors apart for inspection to find the root cause to be the 20000hr L10 life of the lube and bearing. These are sheilded bearings which the manufacturer considers not maintainable. To keep ahead of the failures we implemented a monitoring program utilizing the SDT 170. This program has been excellent and we have only missed one failure in the last 6 months. We have approximatly 350 of these motors on this one line and have made use of a motor rebuild program to keep replacement cost down. My boss wanted me to look for a motor replacement so that we could build in reliability we a maintainable motor, health monitoring program and a lubrication program. Well I have worked with Toshiba to build us a maintainable motor but the catch is if we are going to lube these it must be food grade lubrication. I currently have a kluber rep. helping me select an adequate food grade lube and calculating relube intervals. My fear is that I am creating a labor intensive change. Toshiba has went above and beyond to build use a beefed up EQP III with oversized bearings and caps with zreks and releifs among other changes. We ahve worked with our local toshiba provider to have any special builds after the initial replacement say 3 years from now if we would have a failure. If you have any opnions please reply I am on the fence with this and need some opinions.
Thanks

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This message has been edited. Last edited by: Otto34,

I did not get many replies maybe I did not state my question well enough. We are moving forward with the project but with a slightly different approach. We have decided that the strating a lube program with these small hp motors will just add complexity. The complexity would be compounded by having to use food grade grease instead of a quality polyurea. So we have decided to stay with Toshiba and design a motor to last. We are upgrading there EQP III with oversized bearings and increasing the fill from 30% to 50%. The idea is to get the most grease in the bearing to extend its L10 life. This motor will be backed by a monitoring program as well as rebuilds in the case of a failure. Just an update for those of you dealing with similar decisions. Thanks goes to SKF for their opinion and honesty.