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Bearing protectors ‘can eliminate half of all failures’
Published:  15 August, 2018

The seals specialist AESSeal has developed a bearing protection technology that, it claims, can eliminate more than half of all bearing failures. The MagTecta-S bearing protector combines AESSeal’s existing MagTecta and LabTecta technologies and incorporates a proprietary magnet seal technology.

Bearing failures account for more than 20% of all breakdowns of pumps and other rotating equipment. In more than half of these failures, the root cause is contamination of the bearing oil, typically because of inefficient lip seals. In some oils, water contamination levels as low as 0.002% (20 parts per million) can reduce bearing lives by up to 48%.

Other causes of bearing failures include disassembly problems (15%), misalignments (13%), lubrication issues (11%), overloading (4%) and corrosion caused by oil contamination (4%).

The new protector is designed to tackle the contamination issues and to eliminate shaft damage caused by rubbing. Its magnetically energised contacting faces and labyrinth seal technology prevent the loss of bearing oil and the ingress of harmful liquids, moisture and particles. The protector, which is suitable for shaft speeds up to 20m/s, will not wear the shaft and needs no routine maintenance.

AESSeal claims that its protection technology can eliminate the causes of 52% of bearing failures

AESSeal’s global headquarters and technology centre are located in Rotherham, UK, and it has nine manufacturing sites around the world. The company operates in 104 countries and has a global workforce of 1,675 people.