Minor engineering details make bearings successful for miners
Even in the rugged environment of a coal mine, sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference. So the tough construction and high specification of Revolvo’s Split Roller Bearings are essentials to their success, but the design details are important too.
One of the first stages in re-opening Hatfield Colliery, near Doncaster, was the installation of large underground conveyor systems for coal handling. With the mine having known reserves of 100 million tonnes of coal, and a weekly output of 45,000 tonnes, these systems have to be capable of handling over two million tonnes of coal per year with, naturally, minimum downtime – despite the heavy and shock loads they experience, and the environment laden with aggressive coal dust in which they have to operate.
One of the ways of ensuring optimum performance was to specify Heavy Duty 240mm Revolvo Split Roller Bearings (SRBs) for the conveyors’ main pulleys, and medium series 110mm units for the tail pulleys.
These SRBs were the ideal choice for two main reasons. Firstly, they are manufactured to high material specifications, with bored pocket precision brass cages as standard enabling them to be used underground without any modification. Their construction makes them not only more reliable, but also tolerant of marginal lubrication and cooler running compared with lower quality pressed steel cage designs. They are also exceptionally well sealed with constantly concentric high performance seals, helping to make them more reliable even in such an aggressive operating environment.
Like all the best ideas, it’s simple, but effective and born from experience. And it helps to explain why a maintenance engineer can fit a Revolvo SRB in just 10% of the time it takes to fit a conventional bearing.
Whether you are working underground or just under pressure, that’s more than a minor advantage.