Wear resistant bearing systems
Designing bearing systems optimized towards low wear rates, low friction, low losses, no electric erosion, and no maintenance can be a challenge.
At Sintex, we have been developing and producing both sliding bearing systems as well as trust bearings for many years based on a corrosion resistant hard metal coating that can be supplied directly on the substrate of a rotor shaft or the trust bearing container.
Application examples
Bearings & seals
Thermal spray coatings have a wear resistance comparable to that of cemented carbides in the case of normal bearing applications.
In cases where requirements are extreme, such as in high speed motors, special solutions are available. For example, silicon carbide can be used as an alternative in order to achieve a very robust bearing system with good wear and corrosion properties.
Examples of such bearing solutions are shown in the pictures below.
The hard metal as a bearing part is an advantage in the following cases:
- Substitution of hard chromium is needed due to environmental issues
- There is a risk for abrasive particles, such as sand, as wear rates are extremely small
- Running in semi-dry conditions that will destroy other bearing solutions (with the right counterpart)
- Ceramic systems break due to impact energy. The hard metal coating is strongly adhesive and ductile
- Corrosive medias are in contact with the bearing, as hard metal is specially developed to have a high corrosion resistance
The optimized bearing solutions does always depend on both materials in contact. The hard metal solutions from Sintex can run against aluminium oxide, zirkonium oxide and silicium carbides. An especially high load potential has been observed with silicium carbides. This enables the bearing system to run at higher gliding speeds than other systems.
