A Scrap Yard in The Southwest

The scrap yard was operating a 1300 ton Harris shear with a 5000 gallon reservoir. The shear was down 80 % of the time and failing pumps at the rate of greater than 75/year.

The problems were identified as:

  • Excessive pump failure due to high contamination
  • Excessive fluid contamination
  • Poor quality oil
  • Inferior quality pumps (cheap, because of frequent failure), 12 pumps were on the shear

Application specific analysis revealed:

  • Because of the high failure rate, cheap oil and cheap pumps were the order of the day
  • Because of cheap oil and cheap pumps and high fluid contamination levels the high failure rate was the order of the day.
  • The hourly production value was >$500.00 per hour
  • Fluid contamination level exceeded 24/22/20
  • Because of high downtime two shifts were needed to generate <800 tons/day
  • Very high water ingression rate

Application specific solutions were implemented:

  • Two 60 gpm recirculating filter systems were installed
  • The reservoir was drained, cleaned, sealed and filled with premium ashless fluid
  • Pump wear was monitored for more than 6 months

Results:

  • Need for second shift was eliminated
  • Daily production for a single shift exceeded 2200 tons/day
  • No pump failures during monitoring and only minimum wear recorded
  • Downtime for all causes was reduced to less than 20