Customer Requirements

In 2019, Tufcot were approached by Teknikprodukter and Scandinavian Friction who were in need of a strengthened form of bearing and associated housing.

This was to help with a problem application within their customer’s agricultural machinery.

Specifically, the customer wished to:

  1. Strengthen their bearing
  2. Move away from relying on traditional grease-lubricated solutions which had been problematic in the past
  3. Ensure that soil, dust and dirt could not affect the performance of the solution

Tufcot’s self-lubricating composite material seemed an excellent choice in solving a number of these problems.

Therefore, the project’s goal was to create a reliable, long-term bearing solution with associated housing that could outperform the previous traditional solution.

Tufcot’s Solution

A number of options were discussed and considered with design suggestions being presented and refined.

In the end, it was decided that this project required a hybrid solution using a SmartComp joint bearing in partnership with Tufcot’s self-lubricating composite housing.

The benefits of this approach were:

  1. The self-lubricating composite would do away with the need for extra grease
  2. The solution would withstand soil, dust and dirt
  3. The structure would be stronger than the previous traditional solution

This approach takes advantage of some of Tufcot’s key benefits including:

  • Self-Lubricating – Tufcot® composite bearing materials are manufactured from synthetic reinforcing fibres and thermosetting resins with solid lubricant incorporated.

  • No Maintenance – Due to Tufcot® materials having a self-lubricating nature there is no need for maintenance on the parts once installed.

  • High Strength to Weight Ratio -Tufcot weighs 1/6th the weight of steel and is an ideal choice where weight saving is needed.

  • Low Friction – In recent testing our Tufcot® T100MP material recorded a figure of 0.15µ dynamic co-efficient of friction.

  • Easy Installation – Tufcot parts are easily installed by the end user, either press fitting, freeze fitting or bonding.

Conclusion

The product was built and tested in test rigs that simulated a lifetime of use. The results were excellent!

This led the project into the next stage of testing; field tests. After almost 6 months of use, the results were highly satisfactory.

However, it was decided that an extra wiper would be added to ensure that the absolute minimum amount of dirt could penetrate the warehouse.

The final product was an outer ring in Tufcot’s self-lubricating composite with composite bushing and wipers to protect the chrome-plated ball.

The bushing did a fantastic job of absorbing axial movement and the wiper did an excellent job of keeping dirt away from the bearing surface ensuring optimum long-term performance.