iglidur bearings in the mini-excavator undercarriage greatly extend service life

• What was needed: iglidur ® G plain bearing
• Requirements: Low moisture absorption, resistant to dirt, resilience, maintenance-free
• Industry: Construction machinery; excavators
• Success for the customer: Changing the bearing has increased the service life of the machine and significantly increased its availability. The customer can also completely dispense with the otherwise short maintenance intervals with the new solution. Overall, the stability and load capacity of the mini excavator has increased.

As the deep groove ball bearings in the skate wheels of a YANMAR mini excavator were failing more frequently, the excavator company was looking for an alternative bearing.
The mini excavator moves with the help of a rubber crawler track, which is driven by one oil motor per crawler. The weight of the excavator is distributed evenly on both sides on the skate wheel in the undercarriage, which also provides lateral guidance for the rubber tracks. However, the internal structure of the skate wheel is susceptible to damage due to the harsh working conditions to which excavator undercarriages are exposed. Moisture and dirt particles penetrating into the ball bearings repeatedly lead to the failure of one or more skate wheels, despite regular and short maintenance intervals. The failure of such a wheel entails a great deal of repair work with the associated high costs for spare parts and downtime.

To solve the problem, the expensive and error-prone deep groove ball bearings were to be replaced by plain bearings made of the material iglidur® G. All that was needed was a modified axis and two spacers to fill the cavity created by the elimination of the ball bearings. The smaller circlip, which was used for the axial distance between the bearings, is no longer required due to the change in the axis. The low cost of the required changes makes this solution very cost-effective. As the iglidur® bearings are lubrication-free, dirt cannot adhere. And due to the low moisture absorption, they are also suitable for wet ambient conditions. The service life of the machine is increased, the availability increases significantly. With the new solution, the customer can also completely dispense with the otherwise short maintenance intervals. The stability and load capacity of the mini excavator is significantly improved by the higher load rating of the bearing.