Reducing the Mechanical Wear in a Dusty Environment (Cement Factory)

The solid particle contamination is a challenge for the cement industries due to the highly dusty environment. The contaminants cause severe wear between moving surfaces and this in turn leads to rapid mechanical failure of the machine elements. The solid particle contaminants get into the lubricant among the metal surfaces due to the environmental conditions. The conditions get more severe in cement factories due to the excessively dusty atmosphere leading to high rates of mechanical component failure. In this study, the effect of solid contaminants on the wear process for a cement factory was experimentally quantified. Several contaminants were collected from different areas in the cement factory including the air cooled slag with low ferric particles, fatty clay, sandy clay, water cooled slag with medium ferric particles, lime stone, iron ore and air cooled slag with high ferric particles. HDPE, LDPE, MoS2, Al Powder, PTFE, and PMMA were used as lubricant additives in paraffin oil to reduce the effect of the solid contaminants. The experiments were carried to reproduce the working conditions in the factory and the results were obtained using cross pin wear tester. The performances of the pure and mixed lubricant were tested and the results showed significant reduction in wear with the addition of the proposed lubricant additives into