Bearing Maintenance

Help your bearing achieve its maximum service life

Every bearing has a certain service life potential. Research has shown that, for various reasons, not every bearing achieves it. Important stages which have a major impact on a bearing service life can be recognised during the bearing’s lifecycle. These stages are mounting, lubrication, alignment, basic condition monitoring and dismounting. The stages in a bearing life cycle are extremely important for achieving the maximum service life of the bearing. By applying the right maintenance practices and using the correct tools, you can considerably extend your bearing’s service life and increase plant productivity and efficiency.

Hydraulic tools for mounting and dismounting

Mounting

Medium and large bearings with a tapered bore are often mounted using hydraulic equipment. tools and techniques enable a controlled and precise way for bearings to be mounted correctly and this helps achieve a long bearing service life. The techniques employed can also be used for other annular comments such as gear and railway wheels.

Dismounting

Hydraulic tools and techniques allow bearings, and similar components, on cylindrical and tapered shafts to be dismounted in a safe and controlled manner. We offers a comprehensive range of tools and accessories to dismount bearings and components, that enhance worker safety, and also reduce the risk of component damage.

With the SKF hydraulic mounting and dismounting techniques, you can achieve:

• More control, allowing precision, accuracy and repeatability to be maintained
• Lower risk of damaging bearings, components and shafts
• Less manual effort
• Greater operator safety

Mechanical tools for mounting and dismounting

Mounting

Small and medium size bearings are generally cold mounted. Traditional methods can cause forces to be transmitted through the rolling elements, resulting in damage to the raceways. SKF’s mechanical mounting tools help prevent bearing damage during cold mounting.

Dismounting

Choosing the right puller for the dismounting job is critical. The puller type, and its maximum withdrawal capacity are crucial for completing any dismounting job safely and easily. SKF offers a complete range of easy-to-use mechanical, hydraulic and hydraulically-assisted bearing pullers for use in many bearing applications.

Heaters for mounting and dismounting

Mounting

Incorrect methods account for 16% of premature bearing failures

Induction heaters utilise advanced power electronics with application specific designs for high performance. As a result, by using an SKF induction heater, the total cost of ownership is often significantly lower. Ergonomics and safety are also an important consideration for operators.

Induction heaters are equipped with design features that make them easy to use and safe. Bearing support arms reduce the risk of the bearing toppling during heating, and ergonomically designed yokes help reduce operator fatigue. In addition, the remote control enables the operator to control the heater at a safe distance from the hot workpiece, enhancing operator safety.

Dismounting

Range of heating equipment enables quick and safe dismounting of cylindrical roller bearing inner rings and covers a wide range of applications. Aluminium heating rings TMBR series are designed for dismounting inner rings of small and medium-size cylindrical roller bearings. Adjustable and fixed induction heaters EAZ series are suitable for frequent dismounting of various sizes of cylindrical roller bearing inner rings.

Alignment tools

Misalignment of shafts, belt drives and chain drives is a major contributor to rotating machinery breakdowns.
Accurate alignment can prevent a large number of machinery breakdowns and reduce the number of unplanned stops and loss of production. Accurate alignment can also help to extend the life time of your machines.

In today’s challenging environment of reducing costs and optimizing assets, the necessity of accurate alignment is now greater than ever.

We offers the following alignment tools:

• Belt alignment tools
• Shaft alignment tools
• djustable chocks
• Machinery shims