Reducing costs with plain bearings, Part 6: Optimising maintenance intervals

Lars Butenschön | 2. December 2022

Costs can also be reduced indirectly. Maintenance intervals can be extended with suitable plain bearings. Such bearings require less frequent replacement or re-lubrication. Extending the interval not only reduces costs for maintenance work personnel, but also increases the productive time of the devices and machines.

Shorter maintenance intervals than necessary are often chosen in order to avoid unforeseen downtime due to material failure. Maintenance plans include checking various bearings, moving parts, lubrication points, lubrication and dosing to be used, etc. Costs for implementing these measures include not only machine time, but also personnel. The work requires trained, qualified staff. Mistakes can result in expensive damage.

To keep maintenance intervals as long and the work to be performed as short as possible, ensure that plain bearings have the best possible wear properties and therefore the longest possible service life. Or use plain bearings that require either no additional lubrication or none at all. Many plain bearings are advertised as maintenance-free because they either need to be lubricated only once during installation or because, as in the case of sintered bronze or ball bearings, lubrication is already included and kept in the bearing point with seals, for example.

But if the seals are damaged or there are other influencing factors, these bearings can lose lubrication and fail prematurely, resulting in additional costs. Bushings based on solid lubricants are ideal here. They are less susceptible to external influences and do not need to be replaced or “relubricated”.

Beyond optimising maintenance intervals, there are of course many other ways to save costs. You can find more useful information on this in our white paper entitled “Seven tips for finding the hidden costs of your plain bearings and saving money easily”.

Beyond optimising assembly, there are of course many other ways to save costs. You can find more useful information on this in our white paper entitled “Seven tips for finding the hidden costs of your plain bearings and saving money easily”.