Customer

Food processor

Customer Job Reference

Fillet line on main floor – line 6

Customer Contact

Engineering Department Manager

Background

The JJ Loughran service team was contacted outside of normal working hours at 20:00, by a customer’s engineering manager with a works request for a 4kw, 2905 RPM IE2 Lowara pump motor which had failed onsite. The failed pump motor was critical to the customer’s plant operation and thus needed to be urgently repaired. JJ Loughran service team collected the pump as soon as physically possible and our engineers commenced investigation within one hour of failure.

Our customer queried whether it would be more cost effective to repair or replace the Lowara pump in question. A desktop viability report was carried out prior to commencing works, to establish whether repair was a viable option.

The tables below chart the outcome. In addition, an IE3 pump motor was on a 3-week lead-time from our manufacturer. As a result of this and the below information the customer decided to repair and overhaul the motor, rather than replace the unit with an IE3 equivalent.

Solution

Upon inspection, we found that the DE bearing had seized, mechanical seal had failed and the motor had a low insulation resistance. We dismantled the motor, dried it in the oven and varnished the stator as required. The DE and NDE bearings were replaced.  As photos show, there were cracks in the mechanical seal (which caused the original failure due to water ingress), so this too was replaced with a new seal we had in stock.  The Lowara pump was re-assembled, tested and returned directly the customer’s site as this was an emergency repair. The customer was operational the next morning before production began. JJ Loughran where able to turn around the unit in less than 12 hours.