Tribological Failure Analysis of Journal Bearings used in Sugar Mill

Abstract

Sugar factory uses the sugar mills for the extraction of juice from the cane for the further processing. The size of the sugar mill will vary from the capacity of sugar factory either 2500TCD or 5000 TCD. These sugar mills are supported by using the journal bearings because of the heavy loads. After doing the survey at various sugar industry named as Sanjivani Sugar Factory, Kopargaon Sugar Factory Kolpewadi, Madha Sugar Factory etc, it is observed that they are facing the problem of frequent failure of the journal bearing liners. The present study provides the effective solution for the increasing the life of the liner with the modified polymer composites materials. The failure causes of bearings are identified by simulating the operating conditions and conducting measured experiments on a Journal Bearing setup with requirements for different combination (i.e. load, lubricating oil, and speed) of operating conditions. The DOE technique is used to predict the performance of bearing [1,3,7]. The experimental and theoretical results show the presence of boundary lubrication conditions in sugar mill journal bearings. To diminish the problem of relatively high wear, grease lubrication with special additives should be used for the application [11].