Industry Bible gets first full revision since 1989

Hot off the presses is the new, completely updated and revised edition of the SKF General Catalogue. The catalogue is the industry-standard guide for rolling bearing and accessory design, selection and application, and features advanced technical information, as well as the latest product assortment. Considered by many industrial commentators to be one of the most comprehensive and authoritative reference sources of its kind, the SKF General Catalogue features specifications on standard rolling bearings and accessories for equipment design, manufacture and maintenance. It includes highly detailed technical information to assist design engineers in understanding the optimum performance parameters of bearing arrangements. The new General Catalogue includes three major improvements. Firstly, a friction model section with revised speed ratings has been added, which calculates the friction of all contacts in the bearing from four sources; rolling, sliding, seal friction and drag/splashing/churning losses. The second improvement is a new model for determining required lubrication viscosity. The calculation of the requisite lubrication viscosity now takes into consideration the roughness deformation in the lubricated contacts, the effects of starvation, shear inlet heating, more accurate lubricant properties and the up-to-date film thickness formula which results in an improved bearing life prediction. The third enhancement is a new method for determining lubricant service life for grease-lubricated bearings. Using new diagrams and extensive information on greases, the 'traffic light' approach is used; a green zone indicates safe functioning with the predictable grease life shown, a yellow zone represents unsafe functioning for short periods, while operation in the red zone is forbidden. The new catalogue also features enhancements to the SKF Life Theory, a bearing life expectancy formula first introduced by SKF in 1989, which became the de-facto standard for determining bearing life expectancy. "The new SKF General Catalogue represents a major opportunity for us to share the latest engineering information and product innovations in one complete package for design engineers to utilize in developing the next generation of products, " said Christer Gyberg, Executive Vice President of SKF.