Customer Overview
A UK beef processing plant and abattoir runs high-throughput carcass dressing, cutting and packing lines. It is a cold, wet, high-care environment with continuous high-pressure washdown, aggressive cleaning chemicals, and strict food-safety requirements.
Mounted bearing units — pillow blocks and flange units — carry the conveyors and drive shafts throughout the plant, often sited directly above or beside open product. The customer approached Orbic Engineering Solutions after a persistent run of bearing failures began driving up downtime, replacement spend, and hygiene risk.
The Challenge
The plant had been buying cheap, unbranded imported bearing units to save money. In a beef-processing washdown environment, that economy was a false one:
- Low-cost units failed repeatedly — poor seals and inferior grease let water and cleaning chemicals in, washing out the lubricant and corroding the bearings
- Each failure meant an unplanned line stoppage, an emergency replacement, and lost production — failures were frequent and unpredictable
- The lubricant in the imported units was not reliably food-grade, and grease leakage near open product created a real contamination and hygiene-audit risk
- Non-stainless or low-grade housings rusted quickly under daily high-pressure chemical washdown, shortening service life still further
- Constant re-ordering and re-greasing consumed maintenance labour — the true cost of the 'cheap' units in downtime, spoilage risk, and labour far exceeded their low purchase price
Orbic's Solution
Orbic specified NTN's food-industry SENTINEL range — stainless steel mounted bearing units built specifically for wet, high-care food processing — as a direct replacement for the failing imported units.
100% Stainless Steel Construction
The housings and inserts are fully stainless steel, standing up to the aggressive daily washdown and cleaning chemicals that had rusted the previous units. Stainless protective end covers were added for extra protection during high-pressure washdown.
LUBSOLID Solid Lubrication — Lubricated for Life
The inserts use NTN's LUBSOLID solid lubrication in a 'Full Pack' — an oil-impregnated polymer matrix that fills the bearing's free space and lubricates it for life. There is no grease to leak or wash out. Because LUBSOLID needs no re-greasing, the grease nipple is replaced by a stainless screw, removing manual lubrication from the maintenance schedule entirely and eliminating the risk of grease leakage over open product.
Food-Safety Compliance Built In
LUBSOLID is NSF H1 registered. The FDA-compliant seals are made in a visible blue so any fragment is immediately detectable during hygiene inspection — both critical points in a beef-processing food-safety audit.
Straight-Swap Installation
The SENTINEL units are dimensionally standard, so they fitted the existing conveyor and drive mountings as a direct swap with no modification. As an authorised NTN distributor, Orbic provided the product selection, NSF and FDA documentation, and on-site support to roll the range out across the plant's critical lines.
Results
- 58% reduction in unplanned downtime — bearing failures drastically reduced
- Manual re-greasing eliminated from the maintenance schedule with LUBSOLID solid lubrication
- Full food-safety compliance — NSF H1 registered lubrication, FDA-compliant blue seals for fragment detection
- Corrosion resistance under daily high-pressure chemical washdown
- Grease leakage over open product eliminated — hygiene audit risk removed
- Lower total cost of ownership compared to repeated cheap unit replacements
- Dimensionally standard — straight-swap installation, no line modifications required
Why Orbic?
- Authorised NTN distributor — access to full NSF and FDA compliance documentation
- Product selection matched to the specific washdown and food-safety demands of the site
- On-site support to roll out SENTINEL units across critical production lines
- Full technical and compliance documentation supplied as standard
- True cost-of-ownership analysis — not just unit price