Bearing for Extreme Temperatures Launched

SKF (UK) recently announced the new offer of SKF extreme temperature bearings, featuring a graphite cage that lubricates the bearing up to 350°C without the need for relubrication. This offers an especially powerful solution in the metal industry, where operators can cut maintenance costs, boost reliability and improve product quality by replacing conventional grease lubricated bearings with the SKF extreme temperature bearings. The extreme temperature bearing is included in the SKF BeyondZero portfolio.

“SKF extreme temperature bearings address the need for bearings that can perform in hot, dry environments on slow rotating machinery. Grease lubricated bearings often fail at temperatures exceeding 250°C because even special greases lose their ability to lubricate adequately above this temperature. In contrast, SKF extreme temperature bearings require no relubrication and can operate in temperatures up to 350°C, cutting the cost and maintenance demand of relubrication and offering a significant increase in bearing service life,” says Charlotte Enlund, Product Manager SKF dry lubricated bearings.

Experience in the field shows that bearing service life in high temperature applications can be dramatically increased by using graphite lubricated extreme temperature bearings. For example, in a cooling bed for sheet metal manufacture, bearing service life was increased by a factor of three. In such an application a single bearing of this kind can save up to 4,6 kg of CO₂e and 1,5kg of grease per year. A cooling bed, equipped with 5000 bearings can save 7,5 tonnes of grease and 23 tonnes of CO₂e per year, which is equivalent to an 82 percent reduction of the climate impact compared to using grease-lubricated deep groove ball bearings. These calculations are based on both bearing and grease savings.