Customer's Challenge

Metal Machines received an enquiry from a client located in Malaysia to conduct onsite machining on one of the renewed ball mill’s bearing mounting flanges.

Upon studying the engineering drawing for the GD&T requirement, we realise this is not a straight forward machining task as the centering and parallelism are very critical to the lifespan of the bearings. This finding also post a great challenge to the project as the datum reference are not able to be determined using conventional measuring instruments without hauling up the mill drum.

Removal of any additional part or structure to facilitate the measurement posed a serious challenge to client as this will definitely extend the shutdown period and may induce complication due to the dismantling processes.

Solution

To mitigate the need to remove the mill drum, Metal Machines deployed Faro laser tracker to collect measurement points and map out the 3D dimensions of the drum using Spatial Analyser. Using the data collected, the software is able to derive the drum’s centre and bearing plane at M1 and guide our on-site machining team in adjusting the machine settings to ensure it is mounted perpendicular to the rotating axis of the drum.

The on-site machining scopes involved machining the new bearing mounting flange followed by drilling and threading of mounting holes. The whole scope was completed within a week and the client is able install new bearing and get the ball mill into operation within the allocated repair schedule.

Benefits

By taking up ownership to ensure client’s success, Metal Machines team put in extra mile in studying the engineering needs and share their technical know-how to ensure both ends bearings of ball mill are properly aligned and mounted to prevent pre-mature bearing failure in future.