Mechanical Components

Knowing the suffix code for your preferred bearing closure may make you look like a bearing whizz. However, asking the right questions to ensure that you’ve selected the most suitable option for your specific application environment is the real smart move and will extend your bearing’s service life in the long run. Here, Chris Johnson, Managing Director at SMB Bearings, explains three questions you should ask when choosing between a bearing shield or seal.

Pierre Langevin patented the first technological application of ultrasound during World War One by inventing a device to detect submarines. Like Langevin, maintenance engineers and plant managers can also use ultrasound for detection. Either by itself or as a companion technology, ultrasound can be an excellent part of condition monitoring for your bearings. Here, Chris Johnson, Managing Director at SMB Bearings, provides an introduction into some of the benefits of this technology.

It’s easy to believe that something made of steel will last forever. However, no matter how well you care for bearings in your plant equipment, they will eventually wear and need to be replaced. This is because they have what’s known as a fatigue life. Here, Chris Johnson, managing director of SMB Bearings, explains how to avoid shortening their lifespan.

In mathematics, Pascal’s triangle is an arrangement constructed by summing adjacent elements in preceding rows. It has applications in algebra, probability and is a useful model for calculating combinations - commonly referred to as 'n choose k'. Here, Chris Johnson, Managing Director of SMB Bearings, explains how to navigate the seemingly endless choices in the bearing retainer design process.

According to the TUC, the average rail commute in the UK takes an average of 2 hours and 11 minutes, each day. Also add to the equation that, in 2018, more than one third of trains failed to arrive at stations on time due to technical faults, and you’re left with one very miserable commuter. Chris Johnson, Managing Director of SMB Bearings, considers the future adoption of smart bearings and their impact on Industry 4.0 and the UK.

When it comes to selecting wear resistant tribo-polymers, the user is spoilt for choice at igus. To find the right iglidur plain bearing material for the appropriate application, igus has now developed a new compact analogue configurator for 39 standard iglidur materials. Using overlay cards, the user can determine the suitable material. Alternatively, the iglidur online expert system helps in the selection and calculation of the service life.

Stamping a low quality metal with a high quality machine tool probably wouldn’t result in success. But how many operators, unaware of the low grade material, would blame the machine tool? This event serves as a reminder that pinning the blame on the wrong thing, in any scenario, simply isn’t helpful. But as Chris Johnson, Managing Director of SMB Bearings explains, similar scapegoating also takes place with bearings.

In athletics, some disciplines are difficult to follow for spectators. For football, it is clear to see when the ball is in the goal. In long jump, however, it is it is not easy to judge whether the last jump has set a new record. Virtual lines help the TV audience but they are not visible to spectators in the stadium. The PrimeLine system, developed by Golden Fly Sports GmbH, solves this problem by projecting the ‘mark to jump’ onto the sand.

Precision motion control specialist company INMOCO has introduced a new solution for measuring angular position in extreme environments where potentiometers or capacitive devices may prove unreliable. The non-contact Celera Motion Zettlex IncOder can be described as an inductive angle encoder and works like a transformer. 

Ruland has announced that it has started supplying quick clamping shaft collars with clamping levers. These adjustable levers mate a Ruland metric and international series inch shaft collar to a specially designed clamping lever, creating a shaft collar that requires no tools to install, remove, or reposition.