A hydro turbine company based in Portland, Maine, USA, has chosen Vesconite Bearings’ lowest-friction material for the thrust bearings on its free-stream turbines.
The material, Vesconite Superlube, has one of the lowest coefficients of friction of any plain bearing material available, with a coefficient of friction lower than virgin PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene).
“Thrust bearings made from this material were first ordered in June 2022 and installed in November 2022,” states renewable energy application developer Petrus Fourie.
Vesconite Hilube Replaces Bronze Parts in Hydro Turbine
Hydro turbine bearing components machined from Vesconite Hilube have been installed at Water Turbine and Sawmill Projects in Europe.
The consultant on hydro-electric turbine design and maintenance on the project had first heard about Vesconite bearing materials in 2021, when the restoration projects were still in the conception stage.
The company sent an inquiry for wicket gate bushings and wear rings for the two projects.
Labyrinth seals are now available from Vesconite as a sealing device.
This follows the supply and successful use of Vesconite labyrinth seals by several large pump original equipment manufacturers in multiple labyrinth seal designs over the past 10 years.
Labyrinth seals are provide a long path for water to flow through to prevent leakage. As the name suggests, these seals may be composed of a large number of grooves acting as labyrinth chambers. The labyrinths help reduce the leakage flow through the seals.
A global petrochemical company ordered 20 large pump bushings made of Vesconite Hilube, a premier-grade bearing material.
The bushings were placed into vertical-turbine pumps which supply sea water to a petrochemical plant for cooling purposes.
The order for suction, line-shaft and pump-bowl bushings, consisted of bushings of significant size, with outside diameters ranging from 6.70 inches to 9.00 inches, inside diameters from 5.30 inches to 7.00 inches, and lengths from 7.00 inches to 9.50 inches.
“Vesconite Bearings has significant experience in providing
A large earthmoving company has improved bushing life by installing Vesconite self-lubricating bushings on some of its equipment.
This is according to the Site Manager Richard Stoltz, who installed Vesconite bushings on the main pivot points of a JCB TLB (tractor-loader-backhoe) and a New Holland skid steer.
Prior to introducing Vesconite, OEM bronze parts were installed on both machines, noted Stoltz.
However, operators did not grease the parts regularly and it was discovered that the bronze bushings tended to wear away within three to six months.
Seeking a solution to the wear problem, the earthmoving
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
Vesconite Hilube is a highly advanced thermopolymer in the Vesconite range, particularly suited to operating in wet conditions, including pump and marine applications. Combining low friction and low wear properties, Vesconite Hilube performs exceptionally well under high loads in difficult operating environments.
Both of these materials are now available on our e-commerce store in plates, rods, or bushings forms.
Extracting, filtering, milling, purifying, mincing, liquefying, emulsifying, cooking, pickling, pasteurising, canning, slicing, dicing and drying are some of the many physical and chemical means through which raw food ingredients are transformed into other forms.
As with any equipment in a food processing plant, instruments and apparatus need to be assessed on the basis of their longevity, cost and whether they are fit-for-purpose. Important in a hygiene-critical environment though is whether the equipment is safe and hygienic to use. The health toll on consumers can be high if this is not considered, and the impact on a food company can be devastating if hygiene-related issues result in costly food recalls and significant reputational damage.
A Vesconite Hilube U-shaped liner bearing has been used successfully for 350 hours on a Komatsu 675-5 motor grader.
The U-shaped plate bearing is fitted on the mould board side shift of the grader and acts as a guide on the grader assembly.
The grader assembly, in turn, is used to construct water ways, embankments and contours, and generally protect against soil erosion at the farm that produces maize, soya and sugar beans, potatoes, and wheat.
The innovation for this U-Shaped liner bearing was originally constructed by Hans Bester, an engineer for a farm owned by PW Meiring. His first U-shaped liner was assembled out of small pieces of Vesconite Hilube. This had lasted for 600 hours and it outperformed the previous bronze OEM part that had lasted 500 hours in the same application.
Gallagher's partner, Vesconite Bearings, has established a dedicated extra-large bearings facility within its factory.
It will manufacture no-swell low-friction self-lubricating bearings for large ocean-going vessels, including container ships and oil tankers.
The dedicated facility houses five large horizontal lathes, including a six-meter lathe (20 ft.), and two large vertical lathes.
It also includes an upgraded Superclad machine, which builds up and encases a Vesconite bearing on the external diameter. By using a high-strength epoxy reinforcing system, the resultant jacket provides an extremely strong final structure, combined internally with the exceptional wear properties of Vesconite.
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.