Timken Split Bearings | Less Downtime = Greater Efficiency

Replacing bearings can be a chore—but it is an inevitable one. With all the money and energy expended into work place maintenance each year, efficiency has become a top priority. We asked Timken professionals what the best way to ease the hassle of bearing replacement is.

Solid vs. Split Bearings

“When a solid bearing fails in a trapped application, you normally have to remove all of the equipment on one side of the bearing to change it,” said Nick Dent, Revolvo Business Manager for Timken UK Limited. In order to move the equipment, machinery must be shut down. This process can be lengthy and disrupt an entire plant, losing hours of productivity as a result.

The longer your operations are down, the more expensive the failure or maintenance—making solid bearings expensive to maintain and repair. However, maintenance is not the only situation where solid bearings become an added nuisance, installation is also an important factor to take into account.

Split cylindrical roller bearings, on the other hand, are significantly easy to install because of their unique design. “Because every component in the split bearing is literally split in half, you can physically build the bearing around the shaft without removing all the associated equipment next to it,” Dent says. They can also be interchanged with existing split and solid bearings for any style housing ranging from 1-3/16” to 24”.

Mark Flaherty, Manager of Sales and Marketing at Timken Housed Units reveals the secret: “With the  SAFQ or SNQ Quick Series Housed Unit, the support pedestal is split at an angle which allows you to slide it right under the shaft—for faster, easier installation.”

Employee Safety

Another factor that is often overlooked is the effect that maintenance inconvenience has on workers. “It’s much safer for maintenance staff to manage,” Flaherty said.  “If you’re working with a trapped application that’s 100 feet in the air—like a drive or a fan—it could be an 8-hour job requiring cranes and lots of safety equipment.  Using the split cylindrical roller bearing, replacement is faster and easier to do, without moving equipment for the repair.  It also reduces the risk of an accident by not having to move heavy equipment that is elevated.”

Time-Tested Technology 

Timken split bearings have been on the market since 1998.  However, they are a technically developed derivation on a widely used, time-tested technology, patented in 1910.

In addition, Timken split cylindrical roller bearings use a highly engineered machined brass cage that can handle higher speeds, temperatures, and acceleration.

“The brass cage and its innovative jointing clip is essentially the best technical option available on the market today,” Dent said.  “Aluminum and pressed steel cages are limited in their performance.”

A Closer look at Split-Bearings

Split cylindrical roller bearings are commonly found in mining, power generation, pulp and paper, and manufacturing industries—as well as steel, marine, cement, and aggregate.  “Really, they can be used in any heavy or light industrial application,” Dent said.

Timken offers one of the broadest lines of housed units in the industry including:

Spherical roller bearing solid block housed units
SNT/SAF spherical roller bearing split plummer block housed units
Split cylindrical roller bearing housed units
Type E tapered roller bearing housed units
Ball bearing housed units

About The Timken Company

The Timken Company engineers, manufactures and markets bearings, transmissions, gearboxes, chain and related products, and offers a spectrum of powertrain rebuild and repair services. The leading authority on tapered roller bearings, Timken today applies its deep knowledge of metallurgy, tribology and mechanical power transmission across a variety of bearings and related systems to improve reliability and efficiency of machinery and equipment all around the world. The company’s growing product and services portfolio features many strong industrial brands including Timken, Fafnir, Philadelphia Gear, Drives and Interlube. Timken posted $3.1 billion in sales in 2014, with 14,000 employees operating in 28 countries.

Source: IBT Industrial Solutions