Problem Faced
The problem faced with bronze and metallic bushes and bearings used in machinery for the agricultural sector is the constant need for maintenance and lubrication.
With bearings exposed to the elements, there is a greater risk of a failure due to corrosion, especially if any of the scheduled maintenance is missed.
Another issue not usually considered is the potential for produce to be contaminated from the grease. Not only would this be dangerous for consumption, it could also cause significant monetary loss for the growers.
Tufcot Solution
The team at Tufcot were approached by the customer asking if we could produce a bearing solution that would be able to solve their current issues with maintenance and contamination.
After a few conversations with Tufcot’s technical team our graphite filled material know as T100G was pinpointed as the ideal material for this application. Not only will the graphite give an excellent friction value whilst running without lubrication, graphite also works best if there is any moisture present at the bearing interface.
Once the material had been selected we were asked if it would be possible to make a bearing over 200 mm in diameter.
With over 80 machines in-house, Tufcot can produce anything from 8 mm all the way up to 2.1 meters in diameter, meaning a bearing of this size would be easy to achieve without any need for a change in design.
Conclusion
By switching to Tufcot the customer received a bearing that would need little to no maintenance over its lifetime, removing the need for any greasing!
Not only would this save time and money for the end user it also removes the risk of any contamination onto the raw produce.
Overall a simple but effective application where Tufcot is an ideal replacement for more traditional bronze bearings!
