The factory was apparently experiencing failures every six weeks, leading to a total of 36 bearings being replaced every year – causing considerable downtime and lost production.
As part of an initiative to source more durable bearings, an engineer from NSK's 'added value' programme (AIP) was called in and ruled that the bearings had failed partly due to poor lubrication and partly the ingress of water and particulates.
NSK recommended a trial of its Molded-Oil bearings and, after more than two years, not one bearing failure has since been experienced.
Molded-Oil technology was developed by NSK to improve the reliability and performance of bearings in maintenance-free operations. They use an oil-impregnated polyolefin resin to provide bearing lubrication.
Although similar designs are used by other bearing manufacturers, NSK claims that it provides more than 50% more lubricating oil content by volume than its competitors.
Molded-Oil lubricant is supplied via a patented mechanism that releases oil gradually. Additionally, the risk of oil leakages is minimised, making the bearings smooth running and unlikely to cause contamination risk.
NSK says the technical characteristics of the material provide a consistent lubrication flow, which is temperature dependent – so as heat generation increases, so does the oil discharge rate.
NSK is offering this technology on standard deep groove ball bearings, spherical roller bearings and tapered roller bearings with inside diameters up to 110mm.
For applications where corrosive environments exist or some food production facilities, the bearings can be manufactured from stainless steel.