SKF bearings put Scuderia Ferrari in the driving seat

The 2017 Formula 1 season just started, and SKF is right at the heart of it again, extending its long association with Scuderia Ferrari. SKF will supply a range of specialist products as well as its design and validation expertise to the Italian motor racing giant.

“We have had close and lasting technical cooperation with Scuderia Ferrari for 70 years,” says Jean-Sylvain Migliore, SKF Racing Unit Manager. “Our parts offer real technical advantages – ranging from low friction and compactness to higher toughness and extended life.”

Under the agreement, SKF will supply all customised products that fit into the chassis, such as wheel bearings and plain bearings. At the same time, it will supply a broad range of products for the engine and gearbox – including cylindrical and needle roller bearings, deep groove and angular contact ball bearings and hybrid products.

The SKF bearings provide top end performance: special materials – such as high speed and high temperature steel – as well as special coatings and other complex features all contribute towards meet the exacting standards of Formula 1 components.

Some of the materials, including ceramics, special steels, lubricants and coatings, are still under development in SKF’s R&D centre. In addition, SKF will supply Scuderia Ferrari with testing facilities in order to improve factors such as condition monitoring.

“SKF has been associated with Ferrari since the foundation of the Maranello factory. Over the years, Ferrari has enjoyed the fruits of this co-operation and looks forward to a bright future together” says Maurizio Arrivabene, Scuderia Ferrari’s Team Principal at Scuderia Ferrari.”

SKF helps the Ducati Team gear up for MotoGP 2017

SKF’s high performance parts and specialist technical knowledge are once again helping the Ducati Team prepare for success in this year’s MotoGP World Championship. The season started on March 23 with the Grand Prix of Qatar on a track that last year saw the Italian motorcycle manufacturer not only place second thanks to Andrea Dovizioso but also claim the circuit’s top speed record with Andrea Iannone’s 351.2km/h. The 2017 Ducati Team line-up will see five-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo from Spain join Italian Andrea Dovizioso for the 18-round season.

“Building on a more than 18-year strong strategic partnership with Ducati Corse, our advanced engineering solutions and bearings expertise have long helped Ducati achieve racing excellence including last year’s amazing results,” Alberto Guerrini, who is responsible for the Ducati account at SKF, said. “With the technical advantages of our solutions, such as low friction, long service lives and robustness, we are confident Ducati will enjoy another fantastic season.”

SKF is supporting Ducati with the design and validation of a broad range of specialist components that boost the performance of its purpose built racing machines. The custom engineered parts include deep groove and angular contact ball bearings, cylindrical, spherical and needle roller bearings, hub bearing units and inner rings.

The bespoke parts are developed to withstand the tough demands of the motorsport sector and feature special materials, such as viton, and heat treatments for consistently reliable, high precision operation. SKF also analyses the parts returned from races and track tests in dedicated laboratories to ensure every component is continually being improved further and optimised.

Mauro Grassilli, Marketing and Sponsorship Manager of Ducati Corse, said: “With SKF’s commitment to the constant development of innovative customised solutions and the flexibility of its factories and supply chain for urgent deliveries, the partnership we have with them is a vital element of our success on the track. Thanks to its continued technical support and dedication we have no doubt that this season will be better than ever.”

SKF builds to last: 3 000 tonnes of concrete anchor large size bearing test centre in Germany

SKF is currently building the world’s most powerful large size bearing test centre on its Schweinfurt ‘Werk 3’ site. This pioneering project is now one major step nearer completion – weighing in at around 3 000 tonnes, it took just two days to cast the foundations for the larger of the two new test rigs.

Around nine metres wide, six metres deep and 22 metres long, the pit that had to be filled for the base of the future SKF test rig was the size of two detached houses. It had to be filled quickly to ensure the concrete could set correctly.

Over the course of 19 hours, 150 mixer trucks brought in their load and discharged it in the pit, practically one vehicle every six minutes; so almost as if on a conveyor belt. “Obviously this was a logistical challenge,” says Armin Schaab of SKF’s Construction and Factory Planning team, “but quite clearly our detailed advance planning paid dividends. In addition, the entire team put in a magnificent effort on site, with everything running like clockwork and no incidents of note. This meant we were able to cast the 1 200 cubic metres as planned.”

The base is such a huge block because of the enormous forces likely to be unleashed by the test rig that will be anchored to it. The colossus among test rigs is intended in particular for the testing of gigantic rolling bearings for wind power. “It will be the first test rig in the world capable of testing not just a single main bearing but a complete bearing unit all at once,” says SKF’s Senior Vice President, Technology Development Bernd Stephan, hinting at the dimensions of this unique installation. “The bearings themselves can have an external diameter of anything up to six metres, being intended for turbines in the 10 megawatt class. The test rig can subject structures of that kind to dynamic forces in all directions that, when combined, are many times greater than on the strongest test installation currently available.”

Quite apart from that, the future test rig will also allow rotational speeds on testing that will be considerably higher than currently available. Using these exceptional capabilities, SKF wants to simulate extreme dynamic loads of the order of several meganewtons or meganewton metres in as realistic a manner as possible. In view of power capacity of this order, the engineers from RENK Test System GmbH, the firm entrusted with the development, even had to come up with a special fixing method that would direct the forces exerted on the station in a controlled manner along the correct paths.

“We are making these efforts because the existing computational simulation models simply aren’t capable of making truly realistic prognoses,” says Dr Martin Göbel, Manager of the test centre project at SKF in Schweinfurt. “Our two new test rigs will provide a remedy in this respect and give us insights into processes that were previously inaccessible. The relevant findings will make the new test centre a pioneering instrument in helping many customers from a wide variety of industries gain access to an energy-efficient future in a way that is tailored to the application in question.”

“In the final analysis, the 360 MSEK investment in the new test centre will help us customise large size bearings to their subsequent uses much more precisely and efficiently than has previously been possible,” says Manfred E. Neubert, President of SKF GmbH. “This means that our customers benefit from significantly higher levels of robustness and reliability in the new generation of large size bearings.” For SKF itself, the new test centre is like one of those final pieces in a puzzle soon to be completed, adding to the expertise in large size bearings already available on the Schweinfurt site.

Follow the construction of the world’s most powerful large size bearing test centre: http://skf-download.de/pruefzentrum/cam1en.php.

Construction industry lies at the base of the world economy

Be it residential, commercial, heavy, civil or industrial edifice, they all require reliable heavy duty machinery and long term, trouble free functioning. JTEKT supplies both standard and customised Koyo products to serve those demanding applications.

The construction industry may be showing a differential growth pattern all over the world, nonetheless the use of modern technologies is always a must in order to assure reliability and efficiency.

Construction machinery designed for high performance in extreme harsh environments calls for bearings which can withstand these working conditions and at the same time guarantee proper functioning over a long time span. At JTEKT we follow the latest developments in the construction industry closely and our bearings are designed in order to meet up with the demands of this industry.

Experience and capabilities

JTEKT products are present in construction vehicles and equipment, whether in their drivetrain, in their power units or in their accessories. Typical applications are planetary gear reducers, steering systems, pumps and driveshaft. The unbeatable quality of our products and their specific designs allow our customers to guarantee superior performance to the end users under the extreme operating conditions (temperature, pollution, etc.) of those applications.

Products:

• Tapered roller bearings
• Cylindrical roller bearings
• Spherical roller bearings
• Solid race needle bearings
• Cylindrical roller bearings
• Cage & Roller assemblies
• Universal joint bearings
• Needle rollers sets
• Thrust bearings

Going circular: The next industrial revolution?

The benefits of recycling, reusing and re-manufacturing have been promoted for years. But today, the practice has evolved from one of environmental responsibility to a model for the future of industry and world economies. It’s called the “circular economy” and is viewed by many as the next industrial revolution.

The circular economy aims to almost eliminate waste by using products, parts and raw materials for as long as possible. Proponents see the model as having tremendous global advantages, offering a solution to population growth, dwindling natural resources and climate change.

Researchers and scientists view it as an absolute necessity, as elements, including gold, silver and tungsten could be exhausted in the next 50 years. Other resources, such as crude oil, are getting harder and more expensive, to extract. Commodity prices are increasingly volatile and environmental degradation is impacting the food supply.

Bringing the circular economy to reality will require the reorganisation of how the world produces and consumes. Changes will include designing products to last longer, and in a way that allows raw materials and components to be stripped out when the product has reach the end of its service life. Using renewable resources, reusing and recycling excess resources, and buying and selling services instead of products would also be standard procedure.

Leading business and industrial leaders are already buying in. French automaker Renault, fashion retailer H&M, and telecommunications giant Vodafone have introduced  “circularity” into their business models.  Other companies are sure to follow.  Could your organisation benefit?

New SKF grease cuts false brinelling damage in half

The innovative anti-false brinelling grease for hub bearing units from SKF reduces friction and wear significantly, while improving bearing performance.

SKF has launched a new grease that has been proven to reduce the damage caused by false brinelling in hub bearing units by more than 50 per cent when compared with competing greases. The lubricant has been introduced to the market to help overcome this wear phenomenon and can also enable overall improvements in vehicle efficiency by limiting fretting corrosion and the micro-damages caused by vibration.

Designed for use with both new designs and retrofits, the grease is fully compatible with bearing components materials and came out as the best performing lubricant for reducing the raceway micro-damages caused by false brinelling when tested alongside several other standard greases.

In particular, this solution was shown to lead to a consistent improvement in bearing robustness against the micro-damages in the raceways that often occur during vehicle transportation by rail or truck, for example. In addition, the grease maintains the performance level of the hub bearing unit, including service life.

Roberto Galante, Manager of Advanced Development Wheel End at SKF, said: “With the ability to cut false brinelling damage in half, this grease will play a vital role in helping OEMs to ensure that the micro-damages caused by ball-raceway contact in hub bearing units during vehicle transportation will not exceed the strict thresholds specified by automotive companies. Furthermore, the lubricant maintains the same bearing qualities for consistently optimal reliability and performance.”