Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
(OP)
Hi guys,
First time poster after reading the forums for years!
We have an interesting project that requires a seawater submerged rotating assembly. We need bearings, and plain bearings have too much drag loss for us. Long service intervals would be ideal so we're hesitant with using seals in this environment. The unit will be in high current flow areas near the bottom so there's likely to be a good amount of sediment.
I am thinking if we can go with a water-lubricated ceramic roller bearing we would be looking pretty. Does anyone have any experience with these bearings? We have low rpm, "moderate" radial loads, bearings will probably be in the 4" ID range for our requirements.
Looking for guidance here more than anything. We're currently using enviro-friendly lubricants and doing our best to seal out the seawater, but are looking for more robust solutions. Maybe a housing that is sealed with a mechanical seal and filled with fresh water before deployment..?
First time poster after reading the forums for years!
We have an interesting project that requires a seawater submerged rotating assembly. We need bearings, and plain bearings have too much drag loss for us. Long service intervals would be ideal so we're hesitant with using seals in this environment. The unit will be in high current flow areas near the bottom so there's likely to be a good amount of sediment.
I am thinking if we can go with a water-lubricated ceramic roller bearing we would be looking pretty. Does anyone have any experience with these bearings? We have low rpm, "moderate" radial loads, bearings will probably be in the 4" ID range for our requirements.
Looking for guidance here more than anything. We're currently using enviro-friendly lubricants and doing our best to seal out the seawater, but are looking for more robust solutions. Maybe a housing that is sealed with a mechanical seal and filled with fresh water before deployment..?





RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
I think I'd look for buy-in from a bearing manufacturer for water lube.
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
It is tough to find comparable examples as we have a large side load where most of the seawater lubricated bearings we are seeing are used in ship shafts. Maybe we need to hunt down a different industry, like seawater pumping instead of ships.
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
http://www.fag.com/content.fag.de/de/press/press-r...
have the unsuccessful journal bearings been made from something similar to this?
http://www.igus.com/iglide?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=...
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
Ceramic bearings with water lube and consistent flushing action could work better. I had an application where I pondered the same things. We ended up not even trying it because I couldn't get an all-ceramic bearing free of any carbon steel. Only one way to know for sure is to build it and try it.
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?
There's an outfit called Champion Bearings that can provide large diameter, full ceramic bearings. You're right though, only way to know for sure is to test! Since we have a current design ready for testing, I would like to get a ceramic/water lubricated variant test in order. It would be interesting!
RE: Water lubricated ceramic roller bearings?