Best practices – Mounting of rolling bearings (part 1)
“Everyone knows how to install bearings!”
That’s true! We have multiple examples… And since a picture is worth a thousand words, I will leave you below a few examples from everyday life of the equipment that comes into our workshop for a much-needed health overhaul.
… but to be able to install bearings in such a way that they can operate for an extended period without vibrations and excessive heating requires discipline and know-how in their installation. In this article, we would like to present what we consider the three most important factors for quality operation of your rotating equipment:
1. Working in a clean environment / avoiding contamination of bearings during installation. Therefore, it’s crucial to take extra care not to introduce contaminants or dirt into the bearing (both during assembly and during lubrication).
2. The correct method of installation. The fit and tolerances recommended by the manufacturer for press fitting onto the shaft and for fitting into the housing – see below a table provided by SKF for guidance – which we suggest you check on your equipment.
The most commonly used tolerance classes for bearing installation (on the shaft and in the housing) are provided in the table below (credit to – SKF – SKF Bearing Maintenance Handbook).
3. The correct shape and sizing of the shaft and housing (here we consider at least the shaft runout, concentricity of the housing, and both the conicity and ovality of the shaft and housing to be essential).
Using these best practices for bearing installation will allow you to extend the average operational lifespan (the well-known reliability measure of equipment, which refers to MTBF – Mean Time Between Failures) and ensure safety during operation.
Our team at Rotofix Solutions emphasizes the accuracy and implementation of these methods in our daily practice. Interestingly, we record these measurements in the quality documentation of the repair (after all, we are ISO 9001 certified – something we are proud of), documentation that we present to the Client so they can create a so-called Equipment Repair History to refer to for any future interventions (when, of course, they will forget the details from a hundred years ago! – a figurative expression, to be read with humor).
To be continued!
