Reach Productivity Goals with IP69K Certified Bearings

Publishing Date: July, 2020

 

Washdown applications found in Food & Beverage processing are continuing to raise the bar on requirements for uptime. Special Guest Ian Rubin and host Carmen Ek discuss the tough washdown environments in food and beverage and the benefits of IP69K certified mounted bearing products.

 

Season #: 1  Episode #: 5

    

 

 

For more information, be sure to checkout the links and resources below:

• Check out IP69K Washdown Solutions today!

• Click to learn more information on the IP69K Washdown Solutions.

 

 

 

Transcription

 

Reach Productivity Goals with IP69K Certified Bearings

Carmen: This is Community News on the Air, brought to you by Regal^® Power Transmission Solutions. I'm your host, Carmen Ek. In this podcast series will be sharing tools, tips and new innovations to address some of the tough challenges our customers face. Overall, my goal is to help our customers' employees be successful.

Hi, everyone. This is your host Carmen Ek. There's a lot going on today in the food and beverage processing industry, in terms of safety, sanitation and production goals, which is why I'm delighted to introduce my next guest who is going to cover some recent industry trends, as well as a new Sealmaster^® bearing certification that we really think is going to help food and beverage customers meet many of the demands that they face today.

So with me is Ian Rubin. He's our director of customer experience for Regal Power Transmission Solutions. Ian has vast experience in our Sealmaster bearing product line, as well as the various industries and applications where these bearings are commonly used. He's helped countless customers achieve more productivity and save money at the same time by helping them transition to the right bearing for their application needs.

So, a very special welcome to you, Ian. Welcome to Community News on the Air.

Ian: Thanks, Carmen. It's good to be here.

Carmen: So let's start with some of the trends you are seeing in the food and beverage industry. What can you tell us about that?

Ian: So, Carmen, through the years, the wash down applications in food and beverage have continually... They've really raised the bar requirements for uptime. Maintenance and operations personnel are continuing to push for improved reliability, at the same time working to comply with CIP, or Clean In Place, and the HACCP, hazardous analysis critical control point requirements that they must live by.

Carmen: So how can Sealmaster PN Gold™ bearings help food and beverage maintenance managers with some of these requirements that they're facing?

Ian: PN Gold Sealmaster bearing has been a great product for customers to extend life in the wash down applications. A lot of it's been the high performance triple loop seal and the corrosion resistant features.

Carmen: During my time working directly with the maintenance teams at various different plants, Sealmaster bearings were really thought of as the real problem solver for those tough corrosive applications.

We just recently got a certification for the Sealmaster PN Gold. Why did we just go about getting that certification right now?

Ian: Well, for years, we put the PN Gold product with the triple loop seal through a rigorous slurry box test. We view it as one of the toughest in the markets, and it outperforms other seals in the industry, including our own standard seals, 10 to 1.

But recently we decided to embark on a third party certification for IP69K, which gives us an industry standard certifications, so kind of a stamp of approval, versus our own internal testing.

So IP69 has historically been used in electric motors or electric control panels where there's a power cord. The specifications really certifies water ingress and dry contamination ingress. In recent years, even months, it's becoming the only certified test for bearings in gearboxes, so we decided to get the certification.

Carmen: That's really good. I'm glad we took the time to get that certification. When specifying a bearing for their application or setting production goals, what should our customers know about this IP69K certification?

Ian: Well, we had no doubts that the PN Gold bearing would pass. What really customers and distributors need to know and understand is, it's a certification, it's not a guarantee. The test is aggressive, but it's also short, and doesn't necessarily accurately reflect the real world wash down situations. Customers need to ask themselves -- during a changeover in a plant, how long does the cleaning crew stand and spray a bearing? How close are they to the seal face? How high is the pressure that they're applying?

The IP69 test doesn't factor in all those variables. It's more of a standard sequence of tests. 

I kind of compare it to power washing my deck. If I spray too close or too long in one area, the paint comes off, which is partly the goal, or do I damage the wood, which isn't my goal.

So it's really recommended to understand maintenance practices when selecting the bearing, not just looking at, is it certified?

Carmen: That makes a lot of sense. We're almost out of time. But I was hoping you could share a real world example of how Sealmaster PN Gold bearings have helped a food or beverage customer.

Ian: We worked with a fruit processing plant in California. At the end of every season, the maintenance team would automatically change out the bearings, because of their history of midseason failures. They tested the Sealmaster PN Gold bearing and found that it would get through multiple seasons without a failure. So they didn't have to change the bearings at the end of this season. This dramatically reduced their spend and cost of maintenance. Basically a real win and great cost savings for them.

Carmen: Ian, that's a great story. Thanks for sharing that. And thank you so much for your time today. It was very informative.

Ian: Thanks, Carmen.