Save lubricant, prevent contamination & increase the service life of ball bearings
Patrick Czaja | 5. June 2020
Contaminated lubricant is one of the main causes of bearing damage and often a major factor in the premature end of bearing life. Around 70% of bearing failures are caused by lubricant problems, such as contamination in the lubricant (25%), incorrect lubricant (20%) or too little lubricant (14%). *
If a ball bearing is operated in a clean environment, it should only fail if the (calculated) service life is nearing its end. Contamination of the system has a considerable effect on the service life of the ball bearings.
Foreign particles from many possible sources contaminate the lubricants. For example, small amounts of dust, dirt or deposits contaminate the oil film to such an extent that bearing wear increases. The operation of the machine is impaired or the machine comes to a standstill, which leads to considerable costs. As far as the parameters regarding impurities are concerned, any increase in size, concentration and hardness has an influence on bearing wear.
Water is particularly harmful, and even water-based liquids such as water-glycol mixtures can cause contamination. This is because even 1% water in the oil can have a negative effect on the bearing’s service life. Without suitable bearing seals, moisture can penetrate the system and cause corrosion and even hydrogen embrittlement at existing micro cracks. Repeated deformation stresses result in additional microcracks, which gives the moisture the opportunity to penetrate the material structures.
For optimum reliability in terms of the service life of the ball bearing, the bearing lubricant must be clean, because even the best lubricant available on the market will only save the bearing if it is free of contamination.
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You can see that with lubricants some problems are coming your way. Save yourself the constant relubrication or the cost-intensive search for the right lubricant. Our xiros polymer ball bearings are 100% lubrication-free and also ensure low-maintenance and smooth runningin your application. Many customers are already benefiting from our “cost-down-service-life-up-promise” and have been relying on the many technical advantages of our polymer ball bearings in their applications for years.
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