At the recent Conexpo/ConAgg show in Las Vegas, Dennis Ducalo, an industry manager for mining, cement, and aggregate at Schaeffler Group USA, talked a bit about his company’s bearings that can be used in vibratory screens, including an exciting new product update.
There are basically two types of series of spherical roller bearings that are commonly used in this type of application — the 223 Series and the 233 Series. Ducalo explained that the difference in the two is the width. The bore of the bearing and the OD are the same. The 233 Series is just a little bit wider, so for the same bore and the same OD, it’ll have a higher capacity.
Schaeffler also has an X-life program on some products. According to Ducalo, if they put an X-life label on a bearing, that means they’ve tweaked the design, improved surface finishes, and tweaked the roller geometry and the raceway geometry so you get a better performing bearing.
“Anytime you see that X-life name, that means it’s a high performing bearing,” he said. “We’ve been doing that on our 223 Series shaker screen bearings for 20 to 30 years now. We offer three different cage types on the 223. We have an outer ring guided steel cage. We have an outer ring guided brass cage, and then we have a roller guided brass cage. Depending on the applications, people decide on the cage type. Users really like the outer ring guided brass cage because it gives you the ability to have higher radial acceleration and g-forces. And they also like to do oil samples and if they see brass in the oil, it is kind of an indication — so you check the bearing to make sure they’re good. You really get the same performance out of a steel cage, but people often prefer the bronze.”
These vibratory applications are demanding, for sure. They’re essentially large boxes that help to size the material inside by shaking it vigorously for extended periods of time. Smaller material will fall to the bottom and through screens, where it is carried away. This keeps the larger pieces above the screen. Off-center weights attached to a rotating shaft create the vibrations, putting a lot of stress on any bearings that are involved.
The big news now is that the X-life program is finally coming to the 233 Series. Ducalo said that they have updated and redesigned this Series, so it meets the X-life’s high-quality standards.
“We’ve increased the capacity now even further, so it has higher load ratings, about 15% to 20% higher load ratings than our previous version. We put many of the same features that are on the 223 Series now in the 233 Series. And that’s coming out in the next few months. We’re going to have full launch of production on it. We’ve already made prototypes and we’ve tested it and have had a couple of customers test it — and so far, everything’s really running smoothly.”
Ducalo said that there had been a great deal of interest at the show on this new option, including from some large cement companies.
Schaeffler Group USA Inc.
www.schaeffler.us
