James Hardie Inc. is a fiber-cement business employing more
than 2,500 people, generating a revenue of more than $1.5 billion a year.
The James Hardie plant in Pulaski, Virginia produces 1.5
million square feet of fiber board products per day, more than enough for 750
average size US homes. The Company's products are a byword around the world for
cost-effective, high quality building products and it has plants in Australia,
New Zealand and the Philippines.
The cement slurry used for the fiber board wreaks havoc on
the thousands of bearings which the Company uses in the manufacturing process.
With some bearings experiencing failure in as little as 2 weeks, it is not
surprising that Hardie engineers were seeking to find a solution to this
expensive problem. As well as the slurry, epoxy paint sprayed onto the fiber
board as part of the manufacturing process also contaminates hundreds of
bearings.
After contacting Enviropeel USA, a full scale trial
application took place in January which we are confident will deliver the
results the James Hardie reliability engineers are expecting. Enviropeel has
shown a greater than 500% increase in bearing lifetimes in other similar plants
and we expect the same for James Hardie.
The picture top left shows the build up of contamination on production equipment. On the right and below left, examples are shown of the Enviropeel applications that will provide long-term protection for the bearings.
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