Reliability programme reduces seal consumption by 37% and extends mean time between repair by 62%
John Crane has helped a major global producer of battery-grade lithium reduce annual mechanical seal expenditure by 48% in the first year of a Managed Reliability Program.
The programme also cut seal consumption by 37% and increased Mean Time Between Repair by 62% across 362 pumps, helping the customer reduce maintenance demand, improve equipment availability and make better use of engineering resources.
In practical terms, annual seal consumption fell from 427 to 267 units, meaning 160 fewer seals were required, while the average interval between repairs increased from 10.2 to 16.5 months. Fewer replacements mean fewer equipment interventions, less pressure on maintenance teams and a lower risk of disruption to production.
Efficiency
The result reverses a five-year decline in performance. Between 2019 and 2024, annual seal consumption had more than doubled, Mean Time Between Repair had halved and annual seal expenditure had risen above US$ 1.2mn, excluding labour, downtime and potential production losses.
John Crane introduced dedicated on-site reliability engineering, digital failure traceability and application-specific engineering reviews. These were supported by optimised seal selection and materials, controlled repairs, improvements to seal support systems and targeted technical training for maintenance and operations personnel.
“Within one year, this customer moved from rising costs and declining reliability to fewer maintenance interventions, longer repair intervals and much greater control of seal expenditure. The benefit is operational as well as financial: better protection for production, less workforce exposure to equipment interventions and more engineering time for planned, higher-value work,” stated Aziz Sallie, Vice President, Commercial & Service, John Crane.
