Schaeffler has produced the largest spherical plain bearing in the company\u2019s history to date. This special bearing weighs in at around 4.7 tonnes and has an outside diameter of 1,900mm, a bore diameter of 1,500mm, and a height of 600mm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bearing will be used on a cutter suction dredger that was designed and built by Royal IHC, a Dutch company that specialises in equipment, vessels and services for the offshore, dredging and wet mining markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Special operating conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A cutter suction dredger is a working ship either with or without its own drive that removes solid material from the bottom of the body of water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A vacuum is used to lift stones and transport them to shore, eg using floating pipelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Particular strain is placed here on the connection between the pipeline and the ship, which is implemented via a spherical plain bearing that is mounted on the hull and supports the rotary motion that takes place between the hull and the pipeline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the basis of these requirements, a special bearing was designed specifically for the application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Expertise and everything from a single source<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Due to Schaeffler\u2019s high level of expertise in application engineering, design and production, combined with a close collaboration with Royal IHC, it was possible to produce the bearing according to the customer\u2019s requirements in a record time of just three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Designing the special bearing was not the only major challenge faced by Schaeffler\u2019s experts here \u2013 producing the bearing was also highly demanding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The shock loads that occur in the application meant that the inner and outer rings had to be implemented in a single-piece design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n High operational reliability and low maintenance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The bearing must eliminate the edge stresses that occur and support large forces according to its dimensions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As the forces only act unilaterally on the spherical plain bearing, it was designed asymmetrically, enabling important savings in terms of space and weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To ensure a long operating life and low levels of wear, Schaeffler created a special system of lubrication grooves, which are designed in such a way that the grease is evenly distributed, even during small swivelling movements of around 20 degrees, thus ensuring optimum lubrication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the operating conditions found in offshore applications also require special protection against corrosion, the sliding surfaces of the bearing were coated with a proven lubricating varnish, which ensures that no metallic contact occurs between the inner and outer rings, even in the event of insufficient lubrication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lubrication with grease also means that the bearing is protected against corrosion. This ensures a combination of high operational reliability and low maintenance outlay for the customer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Schaeffler has produced the largest spherical plain bearing in the company\u2019s history to date. This special bearing weighs in at around 4.7 tonnes and has an outside diameter of 1,900mm, a bore diameter of 1,500mm, and a height of 600mm. The bearing will be used on a cutter suction dredger that was designed and built …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105],"tags":[7134],"class_list":["post-14065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-design","tag-schaeffler-bearings"],"yoast_head":"\n