Lubrication and maintenance

Oil lubrication
When oil is the lubricant, the oil bath or oil
recirculating methods are the two most
common.
Oil bath
This is the most simple method of oil lubrica-
tion ( fig. 1). The oil, which is picked up by
the rotating components of the bearing, is
distributed within the bearing and then flows
back to the oil sump.
The oil level should be such that it almost
reaches the centre of the lowest roller when
the bearing is stationary. Even under optimum
operating conditions, the oil must be changed
at least once a year.
Circulating oil
In a recirculating system, the oil can be con-
tinuously filtered and/or cooled ( fig. 2).
This significantly increases the service life of
the oil, helping to avoid frequent oil changes.
The circulation can be produced by a pump.
In a recirculating system, ducts must be ad -
equately dimensioned so that the oil exits
from the housing after passing through the
bearing.
An intermediate form of oil circulation is
one where the oil is splashed up from the oil
bath by other components, e.g. gears in a
gearbox.
Grease lubrication
Todays modern greases enable an increasing
number of maintenance-free bearing applica-
tions to be lubricated for life. Here, the selec-
tion of sealed SKF spherical roller bearings is
the optimum choice, both technically and eco-
nomically. These bearings are filled with SKF
LGEP 2 grease with a lithium thickener, before
leaving the factory ( table 1) and are ready
to mount and operate.
In cases where the operating conditions are
so harsh that very frequent relubrication is
needed or where sealed SKF spherical roller
bearings are not available, SKF offers a full
range of greases and tools to enable proper
lubrication of the bearing ( section Lubri-
cants and lubrication equipment on page 66).
Relubrication
It is only possible to determine relubrication
intervals statistically. SKF bases its relubrica-
t|on |nterve|s on the t|me et wh|ch 7 of
a seemingly identical lot of bearings are still
reliably lubricated, i.e. they correspond to an
L
1
grease life which is the relubrication inter-
val t
f
. The L
10
grease life is approximately
twice the L
1
life.
If the L
10
grease life corresponds to, or
exceeds, the L
10
life of the bearing, the bear-
ing is considered to be lubricated for life and
relubrication is not required.
The following recommendations are based
on the results of long-term tests in various
applications. They do not apply where water
and/or particulate contaminants can pene-
Fig. 2
Fig. 1
Spherical roller bearing application
lubricated by an oil bath
Spherical roller bearing application
lubricated by circulating oil
Table 1
Technical data for SKF L0EP 2 grease
Property SKF L0EP 2 grease
Thickener Lithium
Colour Light brown
Base oil type Mineral
NLGI consistency class 2
Temperature 20 to +110
range, C (F)
1)
(4 to +230)
Dropping point to
ISO 2176, C (F) min. 180 (356)
Base oil viscocity, mm
2
/s
at +40 C (105 F) 200
at +100 C (210 F) 16
1)
The safe bearing operating temperature according
to The SKF traffic light concept, where the grease
will function reliably, lies within +40 to +110 C
(105 to 230 F)