Wear and tear occur naturally on any given bearing. However, in high-speed applications, wear and tear become serious. The high-speed applications create problems for bearing’s lifespan resulting in more friction and heat. Unfortunately, without taking the required precautions and maintenance, the additional heat can cause slippage, early breakage, and churning. Other than this resulting in lost revenue from the downtime, you should allocate adequate resources to avoid preventing this.
There are bearing preventative measures that can help ensure your bearings handle heavy loads at high speeds. For instance, different slewing bearing types require different maintenance approaches. The following are some of the things to do to increase the bearing service life.
Proper Lubrication
Proper lubrication is critical as it reduces the impact of friction. Well-lubricated bearings help minimize churning and slippage while limiting wear and tear that causes part failure.
Therefore, there is a need to identify the best lubrication for the part. Remember that improper lubrication causes early failure of the bearings. You should note that varying operating speeds call for different oil viscosity to help the part run well. However, with time, lubrication loses viscosity, and you may need to undertake manual lubrication. Some applications have systems for automatic lubrication.
You need to ensure that an appropriate amount of lubrication is used for your application. For instance, excessive lubrication can cause churning, and too little will fail to prevent excessive wear and friction.
Monitor Load Requirements
Although proper lubrication is quite important, you also need to take into account load requirements. That is because there are times you change the load on your applications, and you want to ensure they match the load requirements. A load that is too heavy or light for a bearing is likely to pose issues with bearing service life. In fact, excessive weight can result in part fatigue and spalling. Other than overloading cause excessive noise and vibration, it also makes bearings fracture and fails. Loads can be light and increase the risk of slippage that can cause damage. Therefore, it is vital to match your bearings with their load requirements.
Select Right Bearings
The truth is that selecting bearings for the application not only help your applications run smoothly; it also saves you the hassle caused by early failure. Your bearing supplier can help you find the right bearings that meet your budget and performance needs. A good supplier will have a network of manufacturers and experts who can customize bearings to suit your specific needs.
When operating a manufacturing enterprise, maintenance is critical to your operations. That is because unplanned downtime takes a hit in the facility’s production that impacts business’ profits. As noted above, over time, your bearings and equipment begin to wear down. Therefore, periodic maintenance is quite important as it ensures your bearings maintain their health and perform well.
Other than periodic maintenance, you should also carry out predictive maintenance. This type of maintenance is based on signs for the need of maintenance rather than time. Some of the signs for failing and aging bearing applications include excessive vibration, contamination, overheating, misalignment, electrical imbalances, and leaks. You can use the manual inspection to spot these signs.
