A thorough on-site assessment of oil lubrication systems to reduce OPEX

The oil lubrication system assessment provides a comprehensive on-site evaluation and consulting service to address operational challenges in oil lubrication systems for various components such as gears, spindles, screw-down systems, and oil film bearings, including downcoiler units. 

By identifying general inadequacies, the assessment aims to reduce oil losses, prevent water ingress, extend oil lifespan, and achieve energy savings. Customers benefit from enhanced operational efficiency, reduced costs, and improved maintenance strategies, resulting in minimized downtime and optimized production processes.

Customer challenges addressed

  • Localize and quantify oil losses and water ingress
  • Adapt oil supply flow rates to actual needs
  • Analyze data to define measures and roadmap
  • Manage oversized oil systems and overloaded oil return lines
  • Reduce oil losses

Comprehensive on-site assessment and consulting for oil lubrication systems

Tackling operational challenges to lower costs and boost reliability in brownfield rolling mills.

Key features

  • Enhanced lubrication performance, resulting in less friction and wear
  • Cost reduction and improved oil quality by decreasing oil losses and cooling water treatment
  • Cost savings by reducing energy consumption
  • Lower seal consumption costs
  • Predictive maintenance planning
  • Minimization of downtime due to oil facility issues, increased plant availability

Consulting process chain

Success depends on close, long-term cooperation with customers throughout the entire process chain

Highlights

  • Data analysis

    Evaluation of IBA data and oil flow rate measurement

    Existing IBA systems provide a flood of data but usually do not uncover inadequacies. A holistic understanding of fluid dynamics, combined with a smart comparison of data and well-defined oil flow rate measurements during system check visits, makes hidden information visible and clearly demonstrates the necessity for equipment modification and/or parameter adaptation.

  • Equipment check

    Re-design of oil facilities

    The original design of oil facilities is typically based on several assumptions about production parameters and safety factors. As a result, oil systems are often oversized. Thanks to our comprehensive OEM knowledge, continuously enhanced calculation models, and years of practical experience, SMS group experts can identify the most urgent needs for both adaptation of oil parameters (e.g., flow rates, pressures, temperatures, and viscosities) and modification and/or re-design of the hardware. 

  • Roadmap

    Plant-specific guideline

    Results coming from data analysis and equipment check are summarized, a catalog of recommended measures is deduced. 

    Having reached a common understanding on necessity of different measures, SMS group experts will provide a tailormade budget proposal and draw up a roadmap how to implement the recommended measures without interfering the ongoing production process.

Partial modernizations

  • Oil leakage hunting

    Systematic research on oil losses

    Various areas and risks contribute to oil leakage within the lube circuit. The maintenance team usually notices oil leakage when substantial amounts of oil are missing from the tank. At this point, the oil has already been lost, making it impossible to assign the losses to a specific area or component of the circuit.

    • Temporary and obvious oil losses caused by faulty maintenance can be reduced by providing clear instructions and tools to the maintenance team.
    • Continuous and lingering oil losses can be mitigated by implementing suitable sensors that allow for needs-based adaptation of oil flow rates through the various components of the lube system.

  • Water ingress control

    Automated water trap

    Oil facilities are susceptible to water ingress into the lube circuit, which can occur via steam heaters in the tanks, oil cooling units, and most frequently at the shaft sealing systems of oil film bearings. The challenge is to locate and assign the water ingress to a specific component of the circuit or a particular mill stand. One approach is to upgrade existing water traps (located in the return line of each mill stand) by installing suitable sensors and a control system to determine water content in a semi-continuous evaluation process.

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