Replacing of HOWDEN rotor

The rotor of the customer's HOWDEN smoke exhauster had reached a critical level of abrasive wear, threatening to stopping the kiln’s operation. It was necessary to expediently develop and manufacture a new rotor, taking into account the high abrasive wear.

In order to avoid any loss of time, engineering activities were commenced in parallel with completing the customer's bidding procedures and formalizing the contract. The delivery times of materials were minimized by designing the rotor to use the available intermediate products and materials with short delivery times. The engineering was performed by 4 designers in parallel. 

Manufacturing processes were arranged to be carried out ahead of any scheduled operations and on around-the-clock basis. Weekly online meetings were held to update the customer on the work progress and provide photos and videos of completed stages. A step-by-step guide was developed and approved.

A backup lowboy trailer was hired to avoid any delays for technical reasons during transportation. Our engineers inspected the site and completed the preliminary activities there to ensure that installation can be performed in the shortest possible time.

The rotor was designed, manufactured and delivered to the customer in a record time of 90 days. The equipment was successfully put into operation without replacing any plain bearing liners. Upon balancing, the vibration amounted to 1–2 mm/s. No abrasive wear was detected after six months of operation.