Maintenance-free Bearings Need No Lubrication

Maintenance-free Bearings Need No Lubrication The PTFE in the slideway lining ensures functional reliability and enables maintenance-free operation for the life of the part. From bearings for articulation joints, hose reels and vibratory rollers, through to bearings for wire rope sheaves on mobile cranes, Schaeffler's range of bearings offers construction equipment manufacturers corrosion-resistant, maintenance-free, efficient, high-performance solutions. Construction equipment and heavy vehicles are now designed to meet strict European environmental standards and emissions targets.The engines that drive these vehicles, for example, are designed to reduce both CO2 emissions and noise levels. Bearings manufacturer Schaeffler has been working closely with construction vehicle and equipment manufacturers for many years. By getting involved early in the design process, Schaeffler engineers have helped construction equipment makers develop more innovative, efficient and cost-effective bearing solutions.One area where construction vehicles can help the environment is to eliminate the use of lubricants.Engineers at Schaeffler have developed Elgoglide, a range of maintenance-free bearings that require no lubrication. Schaeffler's Elges bearings are coated with a sliding surface based on Teflon fabric.They therefore require no additional lubricant supply; the PTFE in the slideway lining ensures functional reliability and enables maintenance-free operation for the life of the part. Oscillating motion such as the frequent swivelling motion present in construction equipment is endured due to the solid and moisture-resistant combination of the sliding layer and the steel support body. Overall, the customer receives a bearing solution that is offers a well-balanced combination of high load capacity, excellent wear and frictional behaviour, as well as outstanding dry running characteristics. The maintenance work and time consuming mounting operations involved in installing bearings to construction equipment and vehicles, interrupts construction work unnecessarily.For this reason, Schaeffler has developed a range of ready-to-mount bearing support systems that incorporate Elgoglide high-performance plain bearings. These bearings are easy to mount, with all components - pins, tensioning system and plain bearings - fitting together perfectly. The units are pressed into housings and frames and require no additional axial location. Implementing the appropriate surface treatment considerably reduces the formation of rust on exposed bearing components.For wire rope sheaves in mobile cranes, Schaeffler's range of INA SLO4 RR, cylindrical roller bearings are designed to withstand high loads. Lip seals, special grease and Schaeffler's rust-resistant surface coating, Corrotect, offer highly effective protection from contamination and water splash.The bearings are easy to mount in wire rope sheaves.Due to annular grooves, the outer rings are simply located with retaining rings. Schaeffler's four-point contact ball bearings and Elges spherical plain bearings are used to support articulation joints on construction vehicles.This combination offers a rugged, compact design for torsional and steering motion. The four-point contact ball bearing has a high load rating, is very stiff and easy to mount.With its clearance-free, preloaded raceway system, this bearing is more than a match for the requirements in these types of applications.The maintenance-free Elges bearings are designed for high shock loads and alternating loads.Contact pressure is up to 300N/mm2 (dynamic), or 500N/mm2 (static). Schaeffler offers radial, thrust and angular contact spherical plain bearing types, all with excellent load-weight performance ratios. Schaeffler also provides standard and custom-designed bearing solutions for manufacturers of vertical crushers and for vibrators in vibratory compacting equipment and sheet pile drivers. These bearings must withstand high shock loads and radial acceleration in the smallest possible design space.Misaligned bearings and shaft deflections put extra strain on the bearings and ambient conditions are often unfavourable. In many cases, because conventional cylindrical bearings cannot meet these high requirements, Schaeffler can offer customers its premium-grade, X-life range of bearings. Schaeffler's FAG single-row cylindrical roller bearings (NJ) with brass cages have an X-life version that results in 18% higher load carrying capacity, which increases the basic rating life of the bearing by more than 70%. In addition, Schaeffler's LSL (with disk cage) and ZSL (with plastic spacers) range of low-friction, cylindrical roller bearings are ideal for demanding requirements in terms of dynamics load carrying capacity.In vibratory compactors, for example, the bearing speeds can reach 2,500rev/min and accelerations of up to 500m/s2.