Transferring best practice from Italy solves NN Euroball's corrosion problem and saves money

Citation

(2005), "Transferring best practice from Italy solves NN Euroball's corrosion problem and saves money", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 57 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2005.01857aad.001

Transferring best practice from Italy solves NN Euroball's corrosion problem and saves money

Transferring best practice from Italy solves NN Euroball's corrosion problem and saves money

Keywords: Corrosion, Lubricants

When Castrol Ireland won the contract to supply cutting fluids for two centralised lubricant systems at the NN Euroball plant in Kilkenny, the ball bearing manufacturer not only resolved a serious corrosion problem, but also used its group purchasing power to save even more money!

NN Euroball Ireland Limited is part of a European group with plants in Germany and Italy. The company manufactures eight different sizes of balls at the Kilkenny plant, ranging from 10 to 13.494mm – all in chromium steel. Rollers for the bearings, which are mainly used in car hubs, are manufactured in plants in Holland and the USA (Plate 1).

Six separate departments manufacture balls, with an average of 30 machines operating in each department. The two main centralised lubricant delivery systems serve the Flashing and Grinding departments, and both have recently changed to Castrol Sintolin HD37 and Sintolin RSSN products.

Plate 1 Castrol/NN Euroball

Commenting on the change to Castrol cutting fluids, NN Euroball manufacturing manager Seamus Scully says they had been experiencing problems with another supplier's cutting fluid, which was causing the products to rust in a relatively short time.

As Castrol has been a supplier to the site since it opened 7 years ago, and the two products it was recommending were already used at the group's plant in Italy, NN Euroball initiated a series of trials.

Seamus reports that the trials proved extremely successful in eradicating the rusting problem as well as improving the quality of the finish and minimising reworking of the balls. As a result, the fluids in both centralised systems were changed to Castrol Sintolin products.

NN Euroball's European purchasing manager Margaret O'Hanlon also comments on the change to Castrol fluids and the additional cost benefits achieved.

“As well as solving our quality problem, we have benefited from a significant financial advantage by using the group's purchasing power across the plants in Ireland and Italy to reduce our costs”, she says.

Seamus is also complimentary about the support he receives from the Castrol team on site, who he says, are very knowledgeable about centralised systems.

“Any minor hitches have been dealt with very quickly and they send lubricant samples from both systems for weekly tests and e-mail the results for us to action.” He says, adding that NN Euroball operates its own fluid management programme at present, but is sufficiently impressed with Castrol's service to consider outsourcing total fluid management via Castrol in future.

Commenting for Castrol, Area Sales Manager Tom Finneran says that by transferring best practice from the plant in Italy Castrol has helped NN Euroball to greatly improve its corrosion protection, improve the finished product, reduce fluid usage and costs, and make maintenance of the two centralised systems much easier.

Castrol products are also used in NN Euroball's component cleaning and final finishing processes.

For further Information, contact: Castrol Customer Service Castrol (UK) Ltd, Wakefield House, Pipers Way, Swindon, SN3 1 RE. E-mail: thrussc@castrol.com; web-site: www.castroladvantage.com