With such a wide range of housed bearing units, Timken has an answer to keep production rolling.
Bearings are a fundamental aspect of everyday life on a mine site. They are critical to the success of operations but can often be overlooked and underappreciated. When a single bearing fails, operations can come to a drastic halt – potentially costing tens of thousands of dollars per hour of lost production.
Timken, a global technology leader in engineered bearing and industrial motion, can provide a simple solution to such a problem.
“We’ve had experience that many mine sites just accept that some bearings have a relatively short life because of where they’re placed or the load they’re under; we want to look at the root cause and have a solution to solve that specific issue, whether it be an issue around sealing, installation or maintenance,” Timken national mining manager Mark Davies told Australian Mining.
“This puts us in a better position to best serve our customers, as it’ll certainly ensure equipment’s going to work in the long-run and will reduce the total cost of ownership.”
With one of the broadest ranges of housed bearing units on the market, Timken can offer a solution to ensure equipment can continue to operate. Timken can offer ball, spherical roller, tapered roller, and split cylindrical roller bearings mounted in a range of housing designs and materials.
By combining cutting-edge engineering with 125 years of experience, Timken collaborates with its clients to solve complex challenges and advance industries worldwide. With a global reach along with local know-how, technology and expertise can be deployed when and where it matters most.
“We focus on helping our customers choose what’s the right solution for them,” Davies said.
“It’s very rare that bearings fail because of fatigue life; they normally fail from contamination or lubrication issues. In many cases, you’ve got a relatively young bearing that can show signs of wear because of water getting in, affecting the lubricant’s efficiency. A more robust sealing system gives you better protection and keeps lubrication as clean as possible.”
With different housed units for mine site applications, such as the spherical roller bearing SNT HUs common on conveyor pulleys, or solid-block (cast steel) housed units for impact crushers or conveyors and split cylindrical roller bearing units for drive shaft (trapped) applications, solutions can be tailored to specific sites and applications.
“Anywhere there’s a lot of vibration or impact, our solid block house units can handle that kind of pressure,” Davies said.
In addition, solid block housed units can run efficiently on misaligned shafts up to 1.5° without a reduction in life expectancy or sealing efficiency, as the primary seals run on the extended inner ring of the spherical roller bearing.
Other applications for the housed units include high-speed fans or in crusher applications
Timken’s split CRB housed units are specifically designed to fit in hard-to-reach trapped applications.
The split cylindrical roller bearing housed unit is a fully split-to-the-shaft solution, which can be built around the shaft of a machine to make in-situ installation a time-efficient option.
“It means you’re not needing to totally disassemble a piece of machinery to fix or replace bearings,” Davies said.
“A split cylindrical housed unit can quite comfortably fit in a confined space and can rotate at high speeds, making it a perfect solution for fan and drive shaft applications.”
This, according to Timken, means maximum uptime can be achieved, with installation times cut by up to 90 per cent by reducing the time needed to disassemble drive motors and/or gearboxes to fit a bearing housed unit.
“The range of housed unit designs we provide are easy to fit, and with the correct mounting procedures the bearing is set correctly to achieve a long operating life. This minimises downtime and maximises uptime,” Davies said.
With constant research and development in friction management and an already-established team of experts known for their rigorous thinking and exceptional accessibility, Timken continues to make new housed units designed for customer applications worldwide.