Mechanical Technology January 2015

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34 Mechanical Technology — January 2015
⎪ Products and services ⎪
Quality service and faster turnaround
times will now be possible in Nigeria
and the surrounding countries thanks
to the establishment of a local service
centre by blower and compressor supply
specialist Airgas Compressors. Airgas
is the sub-Saharan subsidiary of Ger-
Hydraulic rail benders for underground transport systems
Becker Mining South Africa’s hydraulic rail
benders have been developed for bending
and forming rails on railway lines in heavy
industrial and underground transport sys-
tems. “These rail benders – standard on
many South African mines – are powered
by 25 ton/250 kN hydraulic cylinders and
activated by two stage hand pumps to cope
efficiently in harsh operating conditions,”
says Eugene Davids, product manager for
Becker Mining South Africa. “These robust
rail benders are manufactured locally at the
company’s Bellambie Mining and Industrial
facility in Alrode, according to stringent
quality and safety specifications.”
For ease of maintenance, the pump and
cylinder are detachable from the rail bend-
er. The main frame of these rail benders are
cast and forged from ASTM-E487/78/110
steel and are fitted with specially designed
handles for easy transportation. The back
frame section, which provides stability to
the unit, enhances portability and facili-
tates accurate alignment.
Becker Mining’s range of hydraulic
equipment also includes robust jacks,
designed for safe and easy railcar and
off-road equipment jacking applications.
This hydraulic equipment, with spares and
accessories, is available nationally from
Becker Mining South Africa’s extensive
branch and distributor network. In addi-
tion, the company offers a full repair and
maintenance service at its Alrode service
workshops.
Bearings have long been considered the
heart of rotating machinery, but now,
thanks to SKF Insight™, a smart tech-
nology developed for machine condition
monitoring, they have a brain as well.
SKF’s developments in various
smart wireless technologies are being
integrated into SKF bearings and enable
the units to continuously communi-
cate their operating conditions
through internally powered
sensors and data acquisi-
tion electronics.
SKF Insight
technology is
ideal for
condition monitoring of critical ma-
chinery and technically challenging
applications. The technology makes
condition monitoring more widely avail-
able, especially in applications where it
was previously impossible or impracti-
cal. With SKF’s integrated diagnostic
technology, customers can get even
better control over the lifecycle of their
machinery, leading to lower total costs,
higher reliability and better machine
uptime.
Prior to SKF Insight, condition moni-
toring techniques could only monitor
damage after it had occurred. Now, by
sensing directly on the bearing, SKF is
able to monitor the damage from the
first microscopic effect as it is happen-
ing and, with this information, custom-
ers can take remedial action to react
to conditions causing bearing damage,
such as improving lubrication or miti-
gating against transient overloads.
In addition, Insight makes it possible
Insight – intelligent bearing technology
By sensing directly on
the bearing, SKF InsightTM is able to
monitor damage from the first microscopic effect.
Becker Mining South Africa’s hydraulic rail
benders, which bend and form rails on rail-
way lines in heavy industrial and underground
transport systems on the mines, easily handle
rail of up to 40 kg/m.
to measure the load a bearing actually
experiences rather than what is was
designed for. This valuable information
can be routed back into the design
phase to improve both the system and
bearing design.
SKF Insight technology features:
• Miniature sensor packages for the
measurement of RPM, temperature,
velocity, vibration, load and other
parameters.
• Embedded-power generation;
• Intelligent wireless communication
technology;
• Smart ‘mesh network’ communica-
tion technology that allows informa-
tion to be routed via other connected
bearings.
SKF Insight ensures better operational
knowledge, better maintenance plan-
ning, optimised manpower and spare
part management, which all lead to
lower costs of operations.
Nigerian service centre for air blower offering
man-based Aerzener Maschinenfabrik
(Aerzen), one of the world’s leading spe-
cialists in the design and manufacture
of roots blowers, turbo blowers, screw
compressors, rotary lobe compressors
and gas meters.
The Johannesburg-based company
established a branch in Lagos, Nigeria
in February 2013 with the aim of
providing close proximity sales and
service offerings to clients. “At present,
the Airgas branch in Nigeria is only
an office, however a workshop will be
opened in early March 2015 to cater for
all service requirements, including field
service, repairs and overhauls,” says
Nigeria branch manager, Emmanuel
Dazi. “Once the workshop is fully opera-
tional, the turnaround time on repairs
and service will be reduced.
“Having the service centre in Nigeria
will reduce the standard overhaul time
to about three weeks, which is unri-
valled in the Nigerian market,” Dazi
concludes.
An Aerzen Delta Screw, oil-free screw
compressor.