Industrial World News

SKF opens new factory in Perth

Bearings, seals and mechatronics supplier SKF has opened a new factory in Perth.

The SKF Solution Factory aims to offer Australian industries access to its products and services by bringing together the company’s five technology platforms: bearings, seals, services, lubrication systems and mechatronics.

The Perth facility is the first SKF Solution Factory in Australia and the 18th of its kind globally. The company’s network of factories currently includes: China (Shanghai and Tianjin), Taiwan, India, South Africa, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Brazil, USA and France.

SKF Group president and chief executive Tom Johnstone said Perth was the chosen due to its close proximity to the Australian mining industry.

SKF Australia managing director Tony Doodson said the facility would make a positive contribution to the Western Australian economy. Doodson said said the SKF Solution Factory employs local staff and combines SKF’s experience within its five technology platforms with workshop facilities, which provide customised services and solutions for its customers.

The factory will be used for remanufacturing and customisation services, application engineering, lubrication applications, mechanical services, technical support and training.

SKF services a variety of industries in Australia including mining, oil and gas, food and beverage, pulp and paper, steel, rail, automotive, renewable energy and agriculture

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Centralized lubrication system for wind turbines offers improved efficiency

A successful cooperation of companies within the SKF Group has led to the development of an improved pump unit for centralized lubrication systems for wind turbine applications.

Lubrication requirements for bearings in wind turbines have triggered a series of developments that further enhance the operation of SKF centralized lubrication systems. This has culminated in SKF developing a lubrication package for wind farms worldwide that increases the lifetime and reliability of these systems.

Some bearings in wind turbines require lubrication at predetermined intervals (fig. 1). To achieve this effectively, automatic centralized lubrication systems are required (fig. 2). A centralized lubrication system contains an KFG series pump unit from SKF, an electric filling pump, a pressure switch and a pump for the used lubricant (fig. 3).

The KFG pump unit
The KFG pump unit (fig. 4) is a key component of the centralized lubrication system. Many aspects of the pump have been specifically optimized to meet the demands of the wind industry.

A significant improvement in the design is the option to fill the pump from the top. This feature enables a homogenous exchange of the lubricant, based on the “first in, first out” principle. The lubricant is fed into the system from the top and pumped out at the bottom. In earlier versions, the grease entered the system from the bottom, which meant that unused grease was able to accumulate in the upper part of the pump. A patent application for this top-filling design has been filed by SKF Lubrication Systems, Germany.

The new top-filling design also required a new concept for the grease follower piston (fig. 5), necessary for the correct operation of the rotary pump. The piston feeds highly viscous grease continuously to the pump contained in the pump housing. This new grease follower piston design, in turn, demanded a new concept for a customized, machined sealing solution . This was developed together with SKF Economos Deutschland GmbH, part of the SKF seals platform.

In order to implement this innovative filling method, both a new grease follower piston and the new K01-R ECOVAR sealing system were developed. The piston was designed so that the lubricant is fed through a distributor duct into the system with precise centricity from the top into the grease reservoir. This new design and the customized K01-R ECOVAR sealing system enable the grease follower piston to operate using various viscous lubricants suitable for different temperature ranges.

The new concept was the result of a unique SKF programme “Innovation in a Day”, in which components can be designed and produced within one day. This made it possible to quickly and effectively respond to challenges encountered during the trial phase.

Benefits of the new design
The modular concept of the new KFG pump allows easy pump installation, as does the new reservoir concept, which enhances reliability, even when used in extreme conditions. Forcibly actuated pistons supply adequate volumes with substantial lubricants also at extremely low temperatures. This reduces maintenance requirements and increases reliability.

The exterior pump design was upgraded with aluminium profiles, which considerably improve the pump’s stability and permit larger pump designs without problems. Currently, versions with reservoir sizes from 4 to 15 kg are available for rotary applications and in sizes up to 20 kg (fig. 6) for stationary operations.

Demand-driven developments
The development of the pump was necessary to meet the increasing requirements of the wind industry. This new pump design meets corrosion requirements according to C5M, requested by offshore wind farm operators.

Design, material conformance and respective standards in compliance with C5M requirements have been confirmed by the issuance of the “Germanischer Lloyd Certification”, DAA-GL-426-2010, on 14 September 2010 (fig. 7).

During the development of the pump, a large number of experiments were carried out to test the new functions. Various NLGI class 1 and 2 lubricants were tested for their continuous transport properties in temperature ranges between –30 °C and +70 °C. For example, it confirmed the constant functionality of the grease follower piston with the K01-R ECOVAR customized seal, irrespective of whether the pump rotates, is upside down or is in a horizontal position. After various prototypes were found to function without any problems, the pump was presented at the 2010 HUSUM WindEnergy trade fair in Germany. Almost concurrently, for a pilot project in China, a first run of 40 KFG pumps was delivered to Sinovel, China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer.

As a supplement to the KFG pump, an electric filling pump has been developed that makes refilling the KFG pump from the top quick and easy (fig. 8). The electric filling pump requires an electric power supply, is mobile and can be transported easily by service teams from one wind turbine to the next. It significantly improves service and maintenance operations.

In conjunction with the other previously mentioned innovative SKF WindLub products, the development of the new KFG pump marks an important milestone in the development of centralized lubrication systems for wind power.

Special considerations for wind power applications include:

C5 – corrosion protection
Special approval for offshore use
Convenient refilling with an electric pump
Patented top-filling design
Extensive temperature range from –30 °C to +70 °C
Highly stable design.

Conclusion
An efficient and successful cooperation between SKF Sealing Solutions and SKF Lubrication Systems has resulted in a new pump unit with outstanding and reliable lubrication capabilities for bearing applications in wind turbines, thus providing long service life and reducing maintenance requirements.

Key improvements made to the new KFG pump:

Top-filling design of the pump units
Grease follower piston featuring the K01-R ECOVAR customized sealing solution with integrated magnetic tape and receptacle for the filling tube
Sturdy design using aluminium profiles also for very large pumps
New reservoir concept with inserted pump elements enable an operating range from –30 °C to +70 °C and resistance up to –40°C
Special flanges support the modular concept and allow easy pump installation
The fluid level in the lubrication reservoir can be monitored using up to three external magnetic switches.

Upgraded SKF Explorer self-aligning roller bearings extend service life

Driven by customer needs in challenging industrial applications, SKF developed an improved heat treatment that is now used for the entire range of SKF self-aligning roller bearings (fig. 1). This improved steel provides additional wear resistance while maintaining toughness, to potentially double bearing service life – particularly in applications where there are high levels of contamination or poor lubrication conditions.

When SKF first launched the SKF Explorer performance class in 1999, it set new standards for bearing performance.
By combining material, design and manufacturing improvements, SKF engineers and scientists were able to maximize the effect of lubrication and minimize the effects of friction, wear and contamination. The result: a performance class of bearings that provided higher load carrying capacity and extended bearing service life. The superior behaviour of this performance class has been confirmed and validated by leading certification bodies, certificate 72736 dated 10/05/2006 from Germanischer Lloyd and CPN-1441-1 dated 10/05/2006 from Det Norske Veritas.
From a materials perspective, SKF Explorer self-aligning roller bearings were characterized by an extremely clean and homogenous bearing steel that underwent a unique heat treatment process. The purity of the steel gave SKF Explorer bearings their exceptional strength and durability. The heat treatment created the optimal combination of hardness and dimensional stability.
These improvements in material performance were built into a new bearing concept with improved surface structures and refined internal geometry tolerances. SKF also made significant investments in its manufacturing processes.
The result was a highly reliable range of self-aligning roller bearings, with low friction, high load carrying capacity and minimized stresses.
Since the introduction of SKF Explorer spherical roller bearings, the SKF Explorer performance class has expanded to include other bearing types including tapered roller bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, deep groove ball bearings and angular contact ball bearings. Today, all standard spherical roller bearings, CARB toroidal roller bearings and most spherical roller thrust bearings are manufactured to SKF Explorer performance class specifications.

Heat treatment adds performance
Now, SKF has further improved the heat treatment for self-aligning roller bearings (fig. 1), so that they are even more wear resistant. Though this upgraded heat treatment can improve uptime for virtually any application where reliability and long service life are key operational parameters, the benefits are most apparent in industrial applications where there are high levels of contamination or poor lubrication conditions. Typical examples include the metals, mining, mineral and cement processing industries, wind power and marine, industrial transmission and material hand-ling applications.
To reach this new level of performance, SKF engineers were able to adjust the heat treatment process and increase hardness by up to 2 HRC (depending on bearing size) while maintaining or improving toughness.
This is particularly important for medium- and large-size bearings used in process equipment.
The improved toughness provides more time from when the first signs of damage are identified, until the bearing becomes unserviceable. This additional time enables end-users an opportunity to track the condition of the bearing as they prepare for repairs, virtually eliminating unplanned downtime and reducing the additional costs typically associated with it.

Validation testing
The upgraded heat treatment process results in significantly improved wear resistance for upgraded SKF Explorer bearings when compared with original SKF Explorer bearings. Validation testing was carried out at testing centres within SKF and at KTH University (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm, Sweden, to validate the performance improvements. The test results (fig. 2) show the improved wear resistance that upgraded SKF Explorer self-aligning roller bearings provide.
Other tests, conducted at the SKF Engineering and Research Centre, to verify the service life gain of upgraded SKF Explorer self-aligning roller bearings under poor lubrication conditions (fig. 3), indicate that these bearings can last up to twice as long as original SKF Explorer bearings. For contaminated conditions, endurance tests (fig. 4) similarly indicate a possible doubling in service life for upgraded SKF Explorer bearings, when compared with the original SKF Explorer bearings.
To verify the extended failure mode of upgraded SKF Explorer self-aligning roller bearings, through-fracture tests were performed on the rings. In these tests, upgraded SKF Explorer bearings were compared with original SKF Explorer bearings.
The results shown in fig. 5 indicate that the average radial crack depth at through-fracture, for rings in upgraded SKF Explorer bearings, is deeper than for original SKF Explorer bearings. This shows that medium- and large-size upgraded SKF Explorer bearings can further extend the time from initial spalling to through-fracture. The extended failure mode, when part of a proactive maintenance programme, can virtually eliminate unplanned downtime.
The flange strength of upgraded SKF Explorer spherical roller thrust bearings was tested against original SKF Explorer bearings (fig. 6). After the flanges on original SKF Explorer fractured, the upgraded SKF Explorer bearings ran twice as long and had only developed spalls.
Even though bearings in process equipment are not run to through-fracture, these tests show that once bearing damage has been detected, upgraded SKF Explorer bearings continue to operate longer, providing more time to plan, order parts and prepare for a shutdown; thereby reducing downtime and its related costs.

Conclusion
The contribution that the improved heat treatment provides, to extend the service life of upgraded SKF Explorer self-aligning roller bearings, is significantly improved wear-resistance, which can result in up to twice the bearing service life under poor lubrication or severe contamination conditions. This opens the opportunity for end users to increase equipment uptime in some of the harshest and most challenging industries, from wind power to metals processing.

CARB is a registered trademark of the SKF Group. SKF EXPLORER is a trademark of the SKF Group.

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