Bel-Ray® – Keeping Chains Running & Cutting Costs!

What are the needs of a maintenance manager of a food and beverage plant? Exactly the same as the needs of maintenance managers and engineers everywhere! They want their plants to run as smoothly and efficiently as possible, with the added responsibility of ensuring that the production managers’ need for food safety is met. This can be done by using the Bel-Ray® No-Tox® range of top-quality NSF H1 registered products.

Chieng Thai, our distributor in Thailand, received a call from a global drinks producer who had a lubrication problem. The sugar warehouse was located across a road, but on site within the factory, where the sugar was lifted by forklift onto a chain conveyor that moved the sugar to a lift. The lift then took the sugar in its bulk packaging up to another chain conveyor and across the road in a tunnel and into the production area, with four identical lines going into the factory.

Originally, the company was using a competitor’s product to lubricate the chains, and had to reapply the lubricant every 4 days after hours of cleaning to remove the black sticky gummy residue from the chains. Due to the mixture of sugar and lubricant turning to a sticky grinding paste, the chains had to be replaced every two months because of wear!

Chieng Thai recommended lubricants designed for use in the sugar processing industry. Our No-Tox® Food Grade Chain Lubricant coats and penetrates to lubricate sprockets, links, pins, and bushings to reduce friction and wear, and is fortified with rust and corrosion inhibitors for added chain protection. We also recommended the Sugar Clear Gear & Bearing Lubricant, which is extremely tacky and formulated to lubricate sugar mill open gear teeth, where it displaces water and juice to form a continuous lubricating film and contains polymers and synthetic components to seal the brasses against juice contamination, which can cause severe and rapid damage to the bearing surfaces. 

The cost savings on the hoist were extremely impressive.

• The chains only needed lubricating every month instead of every 4 days
• The chains now run clean and clear with no cleaning required
• The chains have lasted 1 year—6 times longer— without changing!
• The lubricant usage lowered from 20 liters to 6 liters.

The total savings on the chains alone is 1.1 million Thai Baht, or $33,600 USD. This doesn’t include the lowered lubricant usage or the massive savings on man-hours to maintain the hoists.