SKF’s sealed Spherical Roller Bearing (SRB) offers a virtually maintenance-free three barrier solution that extends bearing life and realises significant cost savings for the conveyor industry. SKF, global specialist in bearings and rotating equipment for over 100 years, is cognisant of the ever-increasing demands placed on customers to optimise productivity by extending product life, reducing downtime and keeping input costs to a minimum. With all rotating equipment containing bearings, these are amongst the most commonplace, high-volume equipment in the industrial, mining, marine, construction, agricultural and automotive sectors. “If you take into account that the majority of bearing failures on customer plants is related to lubrication problems, significant across-the board savings are possible by simply fitting only superior quality bearings with appropriate sealing,” says Giscard Lailvaux, SKF Segments/Key Accounts Manager – Southern Africa.

“Bad sealing is the most common cause of bearing failure which can lead to unplanned stops, resulting in up to eight hours downtime of the conveyor belt. In the mining sector, full production loss with consequential astronomical costs typically occurs,” warns Lailvaux. He also points out that, with bearings having to be replaced every fourth years, together with the replacing of the pulleys in planned maintenance stops, the average SRB cost can be calculated at R230,000 (based on 20 pulleys x 4 years).” 
“As the life span of a bearing is directly related to sealing and the condition of the lubrication, quality sealing is paramount,” continues Lailvaux and explains. “SKF’s sealed SRBs are sealed for life and offer prolonged service life for conveyor systems. The use of standard seals (labyrinth seals for e.g.) reduces the need for expensive and complex taconite sealing arrangements. New environmentally friendly grease can be used in SKF or customer housings, which acts as the third protection (barrier). The sealed SRB is factory filled with high-performance grease and is therefore protected and ready to run.”

This new and attractive sealed SRB range from SKF is available in cylindrical and tapered bore bearings. The sealed SRB has the identical carrying capacity and the same availability as the open SRB, with a misalignment capability 0,5o. Most Sealed SRBs can also be used in standard SKF SNL housings and can thus be retrofitted to replace standard open bearings. The full range of sleeves that match those used with open SRBs are available for the sealed units. “A number of our customers in the mining, minerals and marine industries have successfully implemented the sealed SRB into their conveyor systems,” notes Lailvaux. “The SKF sealed SRB solution has drastically reduced unplanned bearing failures and increased Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) with these customers.” Bottom line benefits to customers include a longer bearing service life, elimination of expensive re-lubrication systems, reduced grease consumption, environmental friendliness, reduced need for maintenance and improved worker safety. The virtually maintenance free three barrier SRB solution from SKF is the cost efficient answer that provides the SKF Value Proposition for Conveyer Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and Aftermarket (AM) customers.