SKF’s gearbox remanufacturing service delivers cost savings, performance enhancements and environmental benefits.

Drawing on its expertise in bearings, gears, seals and lubrication, SKF demonstrated how its industrial gearbox remanufacturing service can deliver performance enhancements and extend the service life of obsolete or damaged gearboxes at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2017.

The service covers inspection and diagnosis at the customer's site, removal to one of SKF's accredited gearbox repair centres for reconditioning and/or upgrading, re-installation at the customer's site, commissioning and vibration fingerprint acquisition for future condition monitoring implementation.

SKF addresses the root causes rather than the symptoms of gearbox failures. A detailed root cause failure analysis is conducted on bearings, seals and gears to determine the causes of failure and identify ways in which these may be avoided in the future.

Such an approach prolongs unit life, improves reliability and significantly reduces life cycle costs; it may also deliver a level of performance better than that of the original gearbox.

From an environmental standpoint, remanufacturing makes a lot of sense. Not only does it avoid problems associated with scrapping and materials recycling, it also means less energy is required to manufacture a new replacement unit.

Moreover, a reconditioned gearbox containing the latest energy-efficient bearings and seal technologies is likely to run more efficiently and thus save considerable energy over its lifetime. A remanufactured gearbox is at least 40 % less expensive than a new unit and can be delivered much more quickly – an important consideration for large, purpose-built industrial gearboxes.

Davide Pandolfo, Product Line Manager, Driveline Service and Gearbox Remanufacturing at SKF says: "Large industrial gearboxes are often driven hard and they rarely get the maintenance attention that they deserve, shortening service life and leading to costly unscheduled downtime.

Gearbox remanufacturing makes a lot of sense, whether viewed from a financial, operational or environmental standpoint. Moreover, it enables performance upgrades to be achieved through modern component replacements and precision machining, so the customer gets a better performing gearbox in return for little more than half the cost of a new unit!”