Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
(OP)
Hello,
I have an application that uses Linear Round Rail Ball Bushings on a 1.0"shaft.
The process develops a powder that mixes with the grease used to lubricate the bushings. The operators like to liberally grease the bearings, resulting in greasy sticky shafts that this powder sticks to, and results in damaged bearings and shafts. The temperature of the process is about 140F / 60C
We are looking at a number of alternative arrangements to this, but we have a lot of machines in operation in this configuration.
Long story short - has anyone tried using a dry-lube on ball-bushings, such as graphite or PTFE?
I had an application a while ago with a chain in a bakery oven, they mixed graphite with water and painted it on the chain, the heat dried out the water and left the graphite behind.
I think graphite would be better than grease, as it would coat the balls and channels and allow the balls to roll freely around the channels.
The bearings are only loaded to about 20% of their rated capacity.
Any hints would be appreciated.
I have an application that uses Linear Round Rail Ball Bushings on a 1.0"shaft.
The process develops a powder that mixes with the grease used to lubricate the bushings. The operators like to liberally grease the bearings, resulting in greasy sticky shafts that this powder sticks to, and results in damaged bearings and shafts. The temperature of the process is about 140F / 60C
We are looking at a number of alternative arrangements to this, but we have a lot of machines in operation in this configuration.
Long story short - has anyone tried using a dry-lube on ball-bushings, such as graphite or PTFE?
I had an application a while ago with a chain in a bakery oven, they mixed graphite with water and painted it on the chain, the heat dried out the water and left the graphite behind.
I think graphite would be better than grease, as it would coat the balls and channels and allow the balls to roll freely around the channels.
The bearings are only loaded to about 20% of their rated capacity.
Any hints would be appreciated.





RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
http:
http://www.sandstromproducts.com/index.htm
http://www.achesoncolloids.com/index.asp
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
I would love to read some if anyone else had had experience with ball bushings and dry-lubing.
Thanks
Tommo
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
http://www
http://www.linearmotion.com/linear_bearings.asp
Russell Giuliano
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
Our new machines will use the Lee Control Linear Pillow Blocks, we are looking forward to the trial results. Very simple idea, someone is making a good profit on those units!
The linear bearings are not suitable for us as they need more power to drive, as the co-efficient of friction is 0.1, and the ball bushings are generally rated at 0.01. The motor power is maxed out currently and there isn't enough room to put in a larger motor.
Igus also offer an excellent bush with grooves thru the polymer to allow particulate to channel through the bearing an d not get stuck underneath it.
Would still be interested to see if anyone has used dry lube with ball bushings.
Tommo
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
That is extremely interesting, I have never heard of this before - but searching the web has indicated that this is indeed used as a high temp lubricant.
Does the "milk of magnesia" form a powdery, slippery coating?
Is it cleaner than graphite?
Thanks for a most interesting suggestion
Tommo
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
http://www.apnano.com/
Another thing you might look at is the drop in ceramic system. I would look at this system with the Nano Lub product.
http://www.lm76.com/prod01.htm
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
I will look into the nano-lube product, I have a lot of interest in dry lube at the moment. There are so many areas where wet lubes are limited by their wet properties.
Tommo
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
The exact mechanism that makes milk/magnesia work escapes me, but stability of the powder under high temp seems to be a factor. We used it in jet afterburner relative motion locations.
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
RE: Round Rail Linear Ball Bushings - Dry Lube Option?
The dry lubes that I have seen work in this application have a PTFE particle but not just any PTFE. The particle has to be processed so the average particle size in the lube is under 1 micron. The particles need to fill into the low valleys in the shaft material only visible under a scope. Typically this type of lubricant can not be removed except by abrasion.
What you should expect is that the PTFE (which is inert and does not attract dust and dirt)will keep contaminate from sticking to the shaft and bearing. Because PTFE is one of the most lubricide natural substances, it should reduce friction and keep friction causing heat low.
One problem is that you might notice slightly more noise because your rolling elements are now making contact with the shaft. Another draw back is that you need to pay attention to relubrication intervals.
The lubes that I have seen work is a product called Tetralube, Superlube, and Thomson industries used to offer a linear lube with PTFE in it (although I'm not sure the linear lube is classified as a dry lube).
The plain bearings like the Simplicity bearing is a great alternate but you should review the application with their engineers cause as the bearing wears so does the tolerance and it could affect your process. The shaft alignments are also much more critical when using plain bearings on a two shaft system.
As always, you should test the lubricants and establish new relubrication schedules when changing lubes.
Good luck