bearings
- March 18, 2022
A drop-size carrot sorter, with Vesconite plain bearings installed on its conveyor chains, has worked well at a large carrot producer for two years.
The carrot producer installed the bearings on one of its two processing lines to test whether the processing line with Vesconite performed better than the standard processing line.
Since installation, the carrot farm processor reports that Vesconite bearings on its conveyor chains have reduced wear and resulted in quieter operation.
A drop-size sorter consists of a mainframe with sprockets on each side. A chain runs on the sprockets and a polyethylene plate is attached. Rollers, spaced increasingly further apart, are located on the polyethylene plate and carrots, depending on their size, fall through the differently-spaced rollers into bins below.
- February 11, 2022
After replacing the all-rubber cutlass bearing of his new Jeanneau Sun Fast 35 Tide The Knot two times in seven years, Robert Metzen sought an alternative. A fellow sailor told him about his positive experience with Hilube as a rudder bearing. Shortly after contacting Leandro Panzini from Vesconite distributor VesArg, Metzen had a state-of-the-art polymer bearing installed.
At 2,300 rpm, a sailboat engine will spin its propeller shaft a million times in less than eight hours. Cutlass bearing materials such as rubber and bronze wear prematurely. This creates excessive shuddering and can seriously damage an expensive shaft, log or strut. Metzen experienced severe vibration at 2,900-3,000 rpm.
- January 27, 2022
Vesconite Bearings is exploring new engineering design methods, including reducing or eliminating grooves, where possible, in industrial and marine applications.
Vesconite’s bearing materials are internally lubricated so, when replacing traditional materials, Vesconite is challenging engineers to explore designs that remove redundant or superfluous grooves for cooling lubricant or water.
For instance, Vesconite engineers have redesigned a forklift lower wear pad without the seven grooves on the upper surface that were in place in the original moulded nylon parts.
“Eliminating grooves improves the structural integrity of the part and reduces manufacturing times and costs,” says forklift application engineer Calvin Mpofu.
Similarly, Vesconite Bearings can better on previous marine stern-tube bearing designs where constant
- December 22, 2021
As winter rolls around here in the United States, it's time to talk about the benefits of Vesconite in cold, harsh climates.
In parts of the U.S., some commercial snow blowers and throwers are fitted with Vesconite bearings. The bearings are on both sides of the auger gear box and come into operation if the auger shear breaks and the power continues. This allows the gear box and transfer shaft to keep turning when the auger jams.
- November 12, 2021
Vesconite Hilube bowl, stuffing box, suction, and line-shaft bearings continue to operate in a condensate pump ten years after installation.
This long-standing Vesconite customer located in Virginia reported the success to pump representative Charlie Simpson in October 2021.
The customer is a pump repair workshop that offers timely and cost-effective repairs and specifically offers upgrades to shafting, bearings, and wear rings to enhance performance and efficiency in older pumps as well as repairs and rebowls vertical turbine pumps.
- September 17, 2021
Many polystyrene factories continue to use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) pumps utilizing Vesconite piston-rod bushings. These bush and wipers help to clean the shaft and keep the contaminants out of the pump.
The bushings are used in Mevaco pumps, which supply butane from the butane bulk tanks to the machine that manufactures the polystyrene.
Butane is one of the blowing agents that can be used in the production of expanded polystyrene. The gas is used to make beads of polystyrene expand to produce the foam that is eventually formed into polystyrene drinking cups, plates, picnic coolers and flotation devices, among other items.
August 13, 2021Vesconite Hilube Actuator Bearings for Wind Turbines
A large wind turbine manufacturer continues to use Vesconite Hilube actuator bearing supports in its wind turbines’ hydraulic blade pitch control systems.
Pitch control systems are essential to protect wind turbines in adverse weather conditions as well as maximise the energy production of wind turbines. These systems allow blades to be twisted so that load can be reduced when wind speeds are high and even
July 09, 2021A 54%-per-component saving has been realised by Powerworks following the replacement of bronze bushings with a Vesconite low-friction bearings in the Jetstream turbine starters.
This is according to Powerworks Manufacturing Manager who was responsible for the initiative to replace the bushing located inside a drive spindle that acts as a guide for the spindle.
Testing for normal operation
The Manufacturing Manager noted that the saving has been achieved without any loss in performance, as attested to by six months of in-house testing on a Detroit 6-cylinder engine, a dynamometer, as well as on hydraulic test benches to test the efficiency of the motor.
Powerworks confirmed that the specific bushing was not subject to rotational wear in normal operation as it only moves backwards and forwards.
Vesconite was tested for this motion and no appreciable wear was measured, says a company representative.
June 02, 2021Vesconite Hilube bushings lasted three times longer in a heat exchanger used for the forced cooling of wine at a bottling company.
Forced cooling may be used to stabilise wine and prevent the future formation of tartrate crystals. The bottler forces tartrate crystals to form which are removed through a number of steps including filtration. This eliminates the need for wine-lovers to decant or filter their wine when drinking it.
“The temperature fluctuations caused the chrome bushings to burst and the seals to wear.” With the bushings and seals failing prematurely, this would cause unacceptable equipment downtime.
“The bushings were replaced with Vesconite Hilube and the seals with silicone and the result was an up to three times longer lifespan,” states Brits.
April 30, 2021When Vesconite Bearings’ team visited knife-gate valve manufacturer A.C.Valves to fully understand how its client was using low-friction wear-resistant Vesconite polymer guide strips in knife gates, the company was manufacturing two valves for a mine that had experienced a break-down.
The 20” valves had been requested the day before and the mine’s supplier was due to pick them up on the day of Vesconite’s visit to the company, which can manufacture 200 – 300 knife gate valves a month depending on the size of the valve.
A.C.Valves director Collin Scott notes that the mine required two narrow-design Wafer Ring Flange (RF) bi-directional valves, which are A.C.Valves’ most popular design and the design that uses Vesconite as a guide strip.
The valves, which handle light and medium slurries, are relatively thin and are designed in keeping with mining company plant designs that require small compact plants.