SKF offers solutions to keep stray electric currents out of bearings (pic)

To help motor OEMs, machine builders and integrators combat the effects of electric arcing, SKF has announced that it will make available its advanced engineering services team ¨C which until recently, was an in-house applications research group focused on the effects of electrical erosion. This team of advanced engineering consultants, which has access to proprietary software, testing facilities and a vast knowledge base, can provide customers with solutions they can use to combat the effects of stray electric currents. The group, which has been working with customers world-wide is able to answer questions about when electric arcing occurs in a particular application, which part of the system is most vulnerable, and what types of solutions can be applied to prevent future occurrences. Electric arcing, also called flashover or electric erosion, is best described as a stray electric current ¡°jumping¡± from one bearing ring to the other by way of the rolling elements, to cause premature bearing failure. Though electric erosion is not new, the problem has grown exponentially with the widespread use of variable speed drives and pulse width modulated frequency (PWM) converters.