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Expanding the menu for food industry bearings
If you thought the SKF Food Line deep-groove ball bearing – launched last year – was tasty, here’s a surprise. It was only an appetiser. Now SKF are serving up a new spherical roller bearing design which offers all kinds of mouth-watering ways to help the food and beverage industry maintain food safety standards, comply with industry regulations, and save money.
The SKF Food Line spherical roller bearing (SRB) is the first-ever SRB specifically designed for the food and beverage industry. So now for the first time, the industry can benefit from the advantages of the bearing type invented by SKF back in 1919. That means handling very heavy radial and axial loads, in applications prone to misalignment or shaft deflections, with lower maintenance costs and longer bearing service life.
But in an industry where food safety and avoidance of contamination are paramount, there’s even more to consider when designing a bearing. So, SKF has looked at all the ways to meet the food safety standards and incorporated them into the new bearing.
Firstly, Food Line SRBs contain food-grade grease, so there are no worries about contamination. Secondly, they incorporate a special high-performance food-grade seal to minimize contamination risk in the first place. Lastly, the bearing seals are colored blue for additional food safety and optical detection.
And if raising food safety standards and lowering food contamination risks isn’t enough, the new Food Line SRBs also increase machine reliability, extend maintenance intervals, and provide an even longer service life than SKF open SRBs.
Loads more to offer
A high load-carrying capacity makes the new Food Line SRB a very valuable addition to the SKF bearing menu. And being pre-filled with NSF category H1 grease, which is optimised for food industry use, it’s ideal for applications where there’s any risk of food contact.
However the specially engineered seal makes any escape of grease highly unlikely.
Made from high-performance, nitrile butadiene rubber, the seal is approved by both the FDA and EC, and is designed to protect against water, detergent and contaminant ingress. Also, by minimising the risk of grease leakage, it reduces relubrication and associated costs, raises bearing performance, and extends service life.
As an additional food-safety precaution, unlike standard seals, the Food Line SRB seal is colored blue, which makes the fragments far easier to detect.
Safer savings
Engineering a better bearing for the food and beverage industry isn’t just about improving food safety and hygiene. It’s also about helping to save money.
So the new SKF Food Line SRB has a number of engineering features to help prolong its service life. The self-aligning bearing is manufactured to the Explorer performance class [see box-out below], from steel with high fatigue resistance. It has a high dynamic load carrying capacity, and also benefits from reduced vibration and heat generation. The bearing also has a food-grade seal and food-grade grease.
Together, these factors help to lengthen the service life of the Food Line SRB by an average of up to three times that of open bearings.
Sustained improvements
Swapping a standard bearing for the SKF Food Line SRB can be a major step towards more sustainable operations.
Its low-friction seal not only reduces energy consumption but also cuts CO2 emissions. Because the bearings last longer, they need replacing less frequently – which means a smaller demand for raw materials, manufacturing, and transport. And because bearings last longer there is reduced maintenance costs with less relubrication tasks, minimized purchase and disposal costs, and thanks to the design, there is significantly lower grease consumption.
With so many clear advantages over other bearings for the food and beverage sector, there’s no need to make a meal of choosing your bearings. Just pick the SKF Food Line SRB.
Upgraded for longer service life
All SKF spherical roller bearings have been upgraded to the new SKF Explorer performance class specifications, featuring a combination of high-quality steel and an improved heat treatment process. The result? A superior balance between hardness and toughness.
Benefits include:
- Increased uptime
- Improved reliability
- Higher productivity levels
- Reduced noise and vibration levels
- Excellent wear resistance
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Improve food safety at every step of production
From enhancing food safety standards to ensuring compliance with industry regulations and saving costs, SKF is now unveiling a fresh spherical roller bearing design that promises a feast of benefits for the food and beverage industry.
For more information on Bearing Solutions and to get in touch with one of our ERIKS Specialists, please contact your local ERIKS Service Centre, who will be happy to discuss your options.
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