WHAT’S UP DOUG
FEATURE
The future of bearing related maintenance
What we are seeing is a move towards a situation where the operating facility changes out a complete assembly or asset, rather than just the bearing. BY DOUG MARTIN
18 MRO / Winter 2023
maintenance structure in Canada (or at least traditional heavy/primary industry) for the decades. That story is exemplified by the anecdotal evidence of new pulp mills built in South America in the late ‘80s early ‘90s. In these facilities, the maintenance department was a contractor. The pulp company was an entity that “made pulp” and any support “departments” were contractors. What does this mean for large facilities like the mine site? For several years, instead of changing a single
bearing on a belt conveyor pulley, the whole pulley is removed. In turn, companies who changed out whole motors when there is a bearing problem had their own motor shops, but now they use an outside motor shop. Today, we are seeing larger assets being changed out and rebuilt off-site by a contracted shop. Even the traditional bearing distributors have developed their own service centres, in which they rebuild these assemblies. It is the way they can continue to sell the bearings, MROMAGAZINE.COM
Photo: Mustafa / Adobe Stock
Recently, I visited a large mine site in Northern Canada on a day that layoffs were announced, and one of the maintenance personnel I was to meet, was one of the casualties. Driving on the site with my hosts, a discussion began about how they will have to depend more on suppliers for technical assistance. This comment clearly defines what may be the future of maintenance. However, this story is not new, it has been hanging over the traditional
