vesconite
- November 27, 2019
Changing Bushings to Vesconite
A UK manufacturer of brackets for electrical equipment has changed its 3D printer bushings to Vesconite bearings.
The manufacturer had previously used roller bearings on its two Prusa 3D printers, but had found that roller bearings wore away the printer rods. They also required regular greasing, which limited production uptime and value.
Following some online searching, Triple Link Manufacturing founder Mark Bagnall discovered a reference to Vesconite 3D printer bushings and was attracted by the fact that they were low maintenance and required no greasing.
In addition, he was pleased with the fact
- October 28, 2019
About Vesconite's Hilube
Internally-lubricated, the ultra-low friction Hilube polymer has no stick-slip, doesn’t swell and provides a wear life ten times that of bronze. It machines to +/-0.001″, making it ideal for applications with tight tolerances.
Breaking World Records with Hilube
The team that was awarded the Guinness World Record in 2017 for the longest distance covered by a miniature steam train is setting its sights on improving its record.
Keyser Locomotive Works, together with the Pietermaritzburg Model Engineering Society was able to cover 330km (205 miles) in 24 hours in its record-breaking attempt, which outstripped the previous 1994 record of 269km covered in 24 hours.
- August 27, 2019
Vesconite, a market leader in grease-free polymer bushings and wear materials, has developed a food-grade, high-temperature, abrasion-resistant bearing poloymer.
The polymer is known as Hitemp 150 FG (food grade), and its name signifies that it can be used in applications that run at temperatures up to 150ºC and in which food contact is incidental or likely.
The previous version of Hitemp 150 did not explicitly use food grade ingredients, but, as a result from calls from the food industry to produce a similar hard-wearing product for use in food applications, alternative ingredients were sought for food safety.
“We have produced this Hitemp 150 FG product in which a food-approved ingredients have been used,” comments technical sales representative Eddie Swanepoel.
- June 25, 2019
The Dakar Rally - What is it?
The Dakar Rally (or simply "The Dakar") is an annual rally raid organized by the Amaury Sport Organisation. Since its inception in 1977, most races took place from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal. But due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, races since 2009 have been held in South America. The race is open to both amateur and professional entries, of which amateurs typically comprise of eighty percent of all participants.
The race is an off-road endurance event. The terrain that the competitors traverse is much tougher than that used in conventional rallying, and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than modified on-road vehicles. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks, and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometres (500–560 mi) per day.
Vesconite
- April 30, 2019
In 2018, Vesconite Bearings made a commitment to the U.S. market, increasing its readily available stock of Vesconite polymers and Vesconite Hilube in order to deliver quickly to customers.
Vesconite Bearings manufactures two main product types:
- Vesconite is a specialised hard-wearing thermopolymer designed for challenging operating conditions, Vesconite gives up to 10 times the life of traditional bronze or nylon bushings. Combining internal lubrication, a low friction coefficient and low wear rates, Vesconite does not require external lubrication, even where conditions are dry and dirty.
- Vesconite Hilube is a highly advanced thermopolymer in the
- March 16, 2019
Six Vesconite Superlube load pads that have been recovered from South African rail parastatal Transnet’s Sishen-Saldanha-line bogies show little wear after two years of use.
This is according to Dr Jean-Patrick Leger, the CEO of Vesconite Bearings, which makes the polymer load pads that are installed on railway bogies - the metal structures on which the rail wheels and axles are mounted and on which railway vehicles lie.
“What is interesting is that the samples are hardly worn at all,” he says.
“We see tiny areas where there is 0.1mm wear, but you can see the original machining marks and machine ridges on most of them.”
The Vesconite Superlube load pads have been specified for many
- February 14, 2019
Test-work on Vesconite polymer sliding wear plates have shown promising results on a crawler drill that is employed at a zinc project in the Northern Cape, South Africa.
The wear plates were installed on the rotary head slide of a drill that carries out exploration drilling at the mine from which the goal is to exploit one of the largest zinc orebodies in the world.
The rotary head moves the drill into the ground for deeper and shallower drilling. It also allows the drill to be changed.
Since the rotary head moves approximately 120 times a day, wear on the slides has been considerable, and the original-equipment-manufacturer’s (OEM’s) nylon wear pads were only lasting 500 hours.
As a result, the OEM crawler drill supplier involved in the zinc project sought a solution to extend the life of its wear pads and investigated other wear-resistant materials that could cope with highly-abrasive materials such as chrome and silica that come in contact with
- November 15, 2018
Vesconite’s origins lie in the gold mining industry, a notoriously harsh working environment. The product was developed as a maintenance-free alternative to bronze bushings traditionally used in mining equipment. Unlike bronze, Vesconite eliminates three key issues: The need for regular lubrication; the effects of dirt and grit on costly components; the damage caused by water to traditional bushing materials. Vesconite offers up to 10 times the lifespan of traditional bushes in these harsh conditions, and saves hours of downtime caused by machines requiring frequent lubrication.
Vesconite Bushings on a Vertical Borer Stabilizer Rod
South Africa - A earth-boring company was looking for a durable material to create stabilizers for its borer machines. The machine bores between levels in mines and is capable of boring chutes up to 120m. The drill steel is subject to high levels of grit and rock. The Vesconite stabilizers help align the drill steel, thereby avoiding whip in the drill. Despite the dirty conditions, the new stabilizers required no lubrication between recommended overhaul schedules, and general maintenance and downtime were substantially reduced.
- September 20, 2018
Vesconite and Vesconite Hilube are advanced engineering thermoplastics with a unique combination of properties ideally suited to bearing applications in the agriculture industry. Tried and tested in countless industrial settings over the past five decades, both locally and internationally, Vesconite thrives where traditional bronze and steel bushings often fail. In both dry, wet, dirty and unlubricated environments, Vesconite and Vesconite Hilube have proved themselves time and time again as long-lasting, low-maintenance bearing alternatives. Whether you're a farmer, repairer or manufacturer of harvesters, planters, sprayers, harrows, etc, Vesconite and Vesconite Hilube should be considered as bushing and wear material substitutes.
I can't understand why more farmers don't use Vesconite.
-Old FarmerThis comment was made by an old farmer who had driven 185 miles (300km) to buy Vesconite bushings from our Johannesburg sales office. We can’t help but agree with this sentiment – that any farmer who hasn’t tried Vesconite for bushes, and other sliding wearing parts is unwittingly creating unnecessary work and expense for themself.
- August 02, 2018
The dirt, abrasion and loads associated with earthmoving equipment create notoriously harsh operating conditions for moving parts. Despite these conditions – more often than not combining dirt and water – Vesconite performs well, and is the ideal material for bushings operating under slow speeds or oscillating movements under high load. With its lubrication-free qualities, Vesconite can save machine operators considerable lubrication downtime, not to mention reduced wear on costly counter moving parts.
UK Dump Truck Manufacturer Continues to Fit Vesconite Bushings
United Kingdom - An original equipment dump truck manufacturer first tested the company’s Vesconite Hilube material in its articulation bushes in 2014, and established that they performed well in harsh operating conditions including large-scale construction projects, quarries and mine sites. The 355.95mm-outside-diameter Vesconite Hilube bushings were found to be cost-effective with prolonged durability in the long-run. The dump-truck manufacturer continues to order Vesconite bearings for its 38 ton dump trucks, which have a heaped capacity of 23.3m3 and an engine power of 331kW.