The Bear (Ing) Minimum: Minimum Loads of Spherical Roller Bearings and Some Lubrication Basics

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Minimum Loads of Spherical Roller Job Postings for Maintenance and
Bearings and Some Lubrication Basics Add comment Reliability Professionals
by Charles Kropewnicki
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Trico Total Lubrication Management
In my experiences as both a Bearing Applications Print Solutions
Engineer and a Reliability Engineer there seems to
Allied Inspired Reliability
be a common problem with double row “spherical
roller bearings” (SRB) operating well below their Maintenance and Reliability Tutorials
minimum load ratings. This is especially prevalent in overhung fan and
Join The Association For Maintenance
blower designs utilizing couplings to transfer power. This issue will usually
Professionals
raise its ugly head in the form of elevated temperature on the coupling side
pillow block bearing. In some cases, due to the overhung load distribution,
the coupling side bearing will have a load facing upward or even none at
all. The worst case is when the SRB acts as the fixed bearing and takes a Join the conversation
thrust load, despite having little or no radial load. Join our Newsletter
This condition will cause the rollers to slide rather than roll over the E-mail
lubricant, increasing shear forces within the lubricant and increasing Go
friction/drag within the cage pockets. This will elevate temperatures and
decrease lubrication viscosity. It will also significantly shorten bearing
service life since the bearing life is related to lubrication viscosity between
the rolling surfaces (elements and raceway) and between the sliding
Alignment and Balancing
surfaces (cage pockets & roller side faces). It is also important to note that
SRBs typically need more radial load than thrust load at fan and blower Asset Management
operating speeds since the set of rollers “opposite of thrust load” can
CMMS and EAM
become unloaded and will drag within the cage pockets. This can result in
rapid cage failure of the unloaded side roller set. Green Reliability
Human Asset Management

As a rule of thumb that has stood the test of time in typical operating
conditions, an SRB should have approximately 21cSt of lubrication viscosity Infrared Thermal Imaging
Connect at
at operating temperature. This can be determined from a MaintenanceForums.com
KPIs - Reliability Performance Metrics
viscosity/temperature chart once you have obtained the data. For speeds
that are unusually fast or slow due to a gearbox reduction or increase, a Lean Maintenance
more advanced calculation would be recommended. Speed is the key Lubrication
variable in this calculation, and can change viscosity and lubrication
requirements dramatically at both sides of the spectrum. Maintenance Management
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Since the SRB is widely used in fans and blowers because of its
MRO - Spares Management
misalignment capabilities and robust design, the minimum load condition is
often overlooked, with more attention usually focused on max loading Oil and Fluid Analysis Maintenance
conditions. Some primitive bearing calculator tools utilizing the basic L10h Community
Planning and Scheduling
bearing life formula may give millions of hours of L10h life for light loads
since this basic calculation is only based on fatigue. However, it doesn’t PM Optimization
take into account lubrication viscosity, contamination factors and minimum
Predictive Maintenance and Condition
loading factors, so designers beware! More advanced online bearing
Monitoring Management
programs utilize newer L10 life formulas that will take these factors into
account, or better yet, an applications engineer at a bearing company may Reliability-Centered Maintenance
provide this service. If you have any questions concerning minimum loads
Reliability Engineering
on a specific bearing, most major bearing manufacturers have these factors
in their bearing catalogs, or the information can also be found in some Reliability Leadership
online bearing programs.
Root Cause Analysis
If the SRB doesn’t cut it due to minimum load, there is a solution. A Shutdowns and Turnarounds
“double row self-aligning ball bearing” (SABB) can be used, and has the Total Productive Maintenance (Asset Care)
same external dimensions as an SRB up to a certain size range. This
bearing has a much lower minimum load rating, and in most cases, will run Training
cool and work well. However, be careful not to use this bearing as the Ultrasonics
fixed bearing in this application since these bearings don’t typically do well
Vibration Analysis
with thrust loads unless it is relatively light in comparison to the radial
load. They should mostly be used as the floating bearing in this fan/blower
scenario with the SRB utilized as the fixed bearing on the blower side,
taking both the radial and axial loads. I do realize, however, that there
might be applications requiring a different approach, but this fix could
i l h l f h bl df li i i i
http://reliabilityweb.com/index.php/articles/the_bearing_minimum/ 11/23/2010
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Articles | The Bear(ing) Minimum | ReliabilityWeb.

com: A Culture of Reliability Page 1 of 4

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