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Extreme-temperature bearings operate at 350°C without relubrication
Published:  10 July, 2013

SKF has announced a range of extreme-temperature bearings, incorporating a graphite cage that lubricates the bearing at temperatures up to 350°C without the need for relubrication. The bearings are expected to be particularly attractive to the metal industry, where they could help to cut maintenance costs, boost reliability and improve product quality.

SKF extreme temperature bearings address the need for bearings that can perform in hot, dry environments on slow rotating machinery,” says Charlotte Enlund, SKF’s product manager for dry-lubricated bearings. “Grease-lubricated bearings often fail at temperatures exceeding 250°C because even special greases lose their ability to lubricate adequately above this temperature.”

Graphite-lubricated bearings can extend service lives dramatically in high-temperature applications. For example, in one cooling bed application used for sheet metal manufacture, the bearing service life was increased by a factor of three.

Graphite cage: An SKF extreme-temperature bearing

In such an application, each bearing can save up to 4.6kg of CO2 emissions and 1.5kg of grease per year. A cooling bed equipped with 5,000 bearings could therefore save 7.5 tonnes of grease and 23 tonnes of CO2 per year – equivalent to an 82% reduction in climate impact compared to grease-lubricated, deep-groove ball bearings.