Thordon Bearings for Every Industry

Thordon Bearings designs and manufactures a complete range of high performance, non-metallic journal bearing solutions for marine, pump, hydro-turbine, offshore oil and other industrial markets.

From water lubricated stern tube and rudder bearings for ships to grease free wicket gate bearings for clean power generation, Thordon provides innovative non-polluting bearing solutions that meet or exceed the technical requirements of your application.

Since the first Thordon bearing was developed in 1966, Thordon has continuously improved its high performance polymer technologies and bearing designs to become the world leader in elastomeric bearing technology. Our applications engineering and global technical support teams can support your most unique bearing technical challenges.

Thordon engineered polymer bearing solutions can:

• Provide long bearing wear life
• Eliminate oil or grease
• Operate in dirty, abrasive environments
• Withstand high shock loads and edge loading

With Thordon bearings specified all around the world, an extensive distribution network has been established in over 80 countries. Gallagher Fluid Seals is proud to be your distributor throughout the northeast.

Clean Power Generation

Main Guide Bearings – Thordon offers two grades of water lubricated main shaft guide bearings for new turbines, upgrades from other bearings, and full conversions from sealed oil systems.  Thordon SXL for standard conditions, and Thordon GM2401 for more abrasive-laden water conditions.

Wicket Gate / Linkage / Operating Bearings – Thordon wicket gate, operating mechanism, and linkage bearings operate wet or dry and eliminate the cost, maintenance and pollution risk associated with greased bearings.

Segmented Shaft Seals – Tough, abrasion resistant Thordon SXL segmented shaft seals offer advantages over carbon graphite-based seals including ease of installation, extended wear life, and increased capability to handle transient loading at startup and shutdown.

Wave / Tidal / Current Power – Thordon Bearings is the world’s leading manufacturer of high performance, long lasting bearing systems that require no oil or grease. Our polymers offer the best combination of strength/stiffness with flexibility/elasticity, along with high abrasion resistance.

Pumps & Industrial Bearings
With over 40 years experience supplying oil and grease free non-metallic bearings, sliding wear pads and structural elastomer components, Thordon Bearings can provide solutions that meet or exceed your expectations.

Thordon journal bearings perform well in these operating conditions: abrasive, corrosive, high impact load, high humidity and infrequent maintenance periods.

The major difference between Thordon and other commonly used bearing materials is:

• No oil or grease required
• Abrasive resistance
• Self lubricating - dry start-up
• Noise reduction
• Allows better load distribution over the bearing surface
• Thordon is less rigid - it can deflect slightly
• Different grades for different applications/pressures

Thordon non-metallic bearings have been used in a wide range of industries and various applications such as in pumps, pivot points, screw conveyors, grapples, agitators, gate lock and dam, and flocculator paddle wheels.

Commercial, Private Marine, Naval & Coast Guard

Blue Water Propeller Shaft Bearing Systems – The COMPAC bearing system uses seawater as the lubrication medium in place of oil. Seawater is taken from the sea, pumped through non-metallic COMPAC propeller shaft bearings and returned to the sea. To ensure that abrasives are removed from the seawater supply, a Thordon Water Quality Package is used.

Use of seawater lubricated bearings eliminates the aft seal, as well as the storage, sampling and disposal of oil. Thordon currently offers an industry leading 15-year bearing wear life guarantee on COMPAC. The COMPAC shaft bearing system is currently installed on 600 vessels worldwide.

Dirty Water Tailshaft Bearings – Thordon Bearings has over 25 years experience working with workboats, pushboats and tugs operating in dirty abrasive-laden water, especially in the Mississippi River system in the U.S.A. Long lasting Thordon RiverTough water lubricated tailshaft bearings operating in combination with hard coated shaft sleeves offer life cycle cost and performance benefits to keep your vessel operating longer, saving you money and down time.

Shaft Seals – The Thordon TG100 is a new mechanical seal designed specifically for 86mm (3.375") to 305mm (12") shaft vessels operating in either clean or abrasive-laden waters including workboats, harbor tugs, offshore supply vessels, yachts, ferries, fishing trawlers and self-propelled dredgers.  Manufactured to the same exacting standards as our high performing range of Thordon Bearings, the TG100 seals use the highest quality, hard wearing silicon carbide faces and our proprietary elastomeric polymers to offer the best combination of strength/stiffness and flexibility/elasticity.

Rudder Bearings – Reliability, long wear life and superior customer service have made Thordon the first choice in pollution free rudder bearing applications for over 25 years with an impressive reference list of over 4000 vessels. Thordon SXL self lubricating pintle, stock and carrier disc bearings operate grease-free, above and below the waterline.  For new buildings, Thordon Bearings offers a 15 year bearing wear life guarantee or for conversions offering twice the life of the replaced material to a maximum of 10 years. Both guarantees are unmatched by any other rudder bearing supplier. With a worldwide distribution network Thordon rudder bearings can be delivered fast to any ship repair facility in the world.

Deck Machinery Bearings – Ensuring the smooth, reliable operation of all machinery installed above the waterline is a tall order for a ship's Deck Crew. Operating conditions are tough, and maintenance requirements of the equipment onerous, with the onset of bearing seizure usually imminent should periodic maintenance be delayed or overlooked. Inadequately greased bronze bushings and seawater shaft corrosion may cause bushing seizure.
Even sealed, rolling element bearings often fail prematurely as a result of salt water ingress past their simple contact seals or from the intermittent impact loads this equipment is often subjected to. The cost-effective, maintenance-free solution to solving many of these problems is ThorPlas-Blue, Thordon's new lifetime lubricated bearing material. Capable of operating pressures to 45MPa (6,527 psi), ThorPlas-Blue can be easily back-fit into virtually all applications where greased bronze is currently installed.

Dredge Bearings – Thordon Composite has been consistently outperforming rubber in dredge cutterhead bearing applications since it was introduced in the 1970's. Composite bearing wear rates in dirty abrasive conditions are typically half that of rubber bearings reducing maintenance downtime over the life of the vessel. Thordon also supplies grease free ladder trunnion and drive shaft bearings for dredge vessels.

Offshore Applications – An application with no margin for error, the offshore industry has turned to Thordon Bearings for its unique bearing needs when faced with the unpredictable challenges of extracting oil at sea. Thordon bearing system solutions are being designed into oil platform, FPSO and supply vessel applications where reliability, long life, low friction and non-polluting grease free operations are of key importance.