The biggest advance in plain bearings in over 70 years
Bowman International has developed a new range of rolled bearings made from ToughMet material, which provides outstanding load, heat, speed, and corrosion resistance capabilities as well as greatly increased lifespan compared to existing bearings. The ToughMet bearings are well-suited for applications in mining, construction, off-road vehicles, aircraft, oil/gas, and other industrial equipment. They provide benefits like increased lifespan, corrosion resistance, higher loads and speeds, resulting in fewer warranty claims, longer maintenance cycles, and lower costs. The bearings can be produced in plain, flanged, or customized configurations using a new rolling process that generates virtually no material waste compared to conventional machining.
The biggest advance in plain bearings in over 70 years
- 1. The biggest advance in plain bearings in over 70 years. The new Bowmet Range Bowman International Ltd, of the UK have developed the new BowMet® range of rolled bearings manufactured in the material ToughMet® from Materion, which has outstanding bearing properties giving much higher loading, heat, speed and corrosion capabilities as well as greatly increased life. Due to the load, wear characteristics and higher PV value, this material is ideally suited to mining equipment, heavy construction equipment, off road vehicles, quarrying equipment, aircraft landing gear, oil and gas drilling equipment, heavy military vehicles, materials handling equipment, heavy duty production machinery, racing engines, steel mill rolls, injection molding machines, scissor lifts and marine applications. Bearings in ToughMet®, when used in these applications have greatly increased life, combated corrosion and have carried higher loads and enabled higher speeds than existing bearings, resulting in fewer warranty claims, longer maintenance cycles, better reliability, reduced down time and lower maintenance costs. The bearings can be plain or flanged, and if required lubrication grooves and holes as well as pockets can be provided. Location slots or tabs can also be incorporated. Half shells, thrust washers and wear strips are also available. Nonstandard sizes and special shaped washers and plates can be produced to order.
- 2. The photograph shows some of these features. Both metric and imperial sizes can be offered. Standard material thickness is 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm and 3mm. Other gauges can be offered. Previously bearings in ToughMet® had to be machined from solid bar or thick walled tube which often resulted in a considerable amount of the material being wasted. The Bowman method of producing bearings in ToughMet® using a rolling process gives virtually no material wastage. This, along with the rolling process being a far more cost effective method of producing plain bearings than machining, results in impressive cost reductions. There are no restrictions with respect to quantity, and one off specials to high volume runs can be produced with minimal tooling cost. Other Bowman products include Bronze, PTFE lined and Graphite inserted bearings For further information, please contact Bowman International Ltd or Robert@RGWSalesCanada.com