With fossil fuels accounting for the largest contribution to the global greenhouse emission (75%) and with humans exceeding 20 tonnes* of carbon footprints in their lifetime, approximating to 40 trucks to carry the solid mass of the carbon, Beldam Crossley’s renewable energy sealing solutions could be vital for the future growth of the renewable energy sector.
Common Failures of Wind Turbines Bearings
Wind turbines containing metallic bearings can suffer from axial cracking, resulting in bearing failure. Additionally, contaminated lubrication causes a change in viscosity resulting in the bearing running hot, and potential bearing failure.
PTFE Radial Seals – Sealing Solutions
Radial shaft seals are mounted between the rotating and stationary components. The inner sealing lip seals dynamically and statically against the shaft. Using PTFE helps extend the bearing’s life, increasing the reliability of the overall system, with a reduced leakage rate. Additionally, the maintenance cost is relatively cheaper, depending on the application, PTFE is a lot cheaper than metallic seals.
Avoiding Wind Turbines Bearings Failure with Beldam Crossley
At Beldam Crossley, our well-designed sealing solution ensures no failure takes place. We have our own brand of PTFE solutions – Crossflon. Lubrication contamination issues are reduced, due to PTFE being self-lubricating and having excellent chemical compatibility with a wide range of media. Furthermore, Beldam Crossley’s PTFE can help avoid axial cracks in the metallic bearing. This is due to our PTFE having a high load-bearing capacity, in conjunction with a low coefficient of friction compared to most metallics, ensuring it is an outstanding choice for radial bearing.
Metal’s Friction Performance
When dragging something over metal, its performance is greatly affected unless it’s lubricated. At Beldam Crossley, we have used our PTFE sheets to skid over 50,000 tonnes successfully. The more load applied to the metallic bearing, the more friction it creates, resulting in the build-up of the temperate causing wear to increase. Therefore, we supply PTFE, which is the complete opposite! Loading the material appropriately using PTFE will help reduce friction, resulting in less wear on the turbine, shafts, and on the gearbox.
Beldam Crossley’s Fresh Perspective in the Market Friction Performance
Over the years, across the UK and Europe, there have been massive supply chain issues, and increased costs of materials, especially in metallics. Due to numerous global factors, businesses have found themselves to be re-evaluating the supply chain across the board. This is where we, Beldam Crossley, step in. Being a smaller organization compared to our competitors allows us to have greater flexibility. We can make driven and decisive decisions promptly, whether this means priority reorganizing of our production schedule and manufacturing cells or even additional CapEx spending on new machinery. We can fulfil demands from one-offs right through to mass production – the competition is not able to do that.
At Beldam Crossley Ltd, we are very proud of our rich heritage. It is important for us to ensure our customers are properly looked after. Hence if you have any problems, questions, or queries, feel free to contact us!