We provide preventative, predictive, and corrective maintenance services through our global network of Service and Repair Centers. We have highly qualified specialists and the necessary equipment to serve the major manufacturers, including bearing and gearbox test benches configured to simulate real operating conditions with high dynamic loads.
Service and Repair
The condition of bearings has a significant influence on production processes and they can be reconditioned to extend their service life significantly. ABS can recondition all types of bearings regardless of the manufacturer.
Our industrial mechanical products (Bearings, Engineering Chains, Gearboxes…), are highly engineered products that have been previously tested through simulations and have passed numerous quality tests before being put into operation for the first time, with the intention of prolonging their service life as much as possible. However, there is no mechanical component that lasts forever.
They are usually subjected to very demanding working conditions and despite complying with adequate maintenance, they are exposed to a series of factors that cause their wear and as a consequence their malfunction: high temperatures, strong vibrations, excessive contamination, insufficient lubrication…
In most cases, and if possible, the option to repair and recondition a bearing or any related mechanical component leads to significant savings in time and cost compared to a newly manufactured bearing. In addition, it is also the most sustainable option -in a reconditioned mechanical component we can reuse approximately 70% of the materials compared to the manufacture of a new component-. However, to proceed with its reconditioning with guarantees, it is necessary to have a team of highly qualified technicians and engineers and the equipment and facilities necessary to proceed with its inspection, analysis of improvements, and finally the repairs that are necessary for that can be reused.
ABS has a long and successful history of repairing and reconditioning bearings and mechanical components for many heavy industry sectors. Furthermore, our refurbished bearings are subjected to the same Quality Controls as our newly made bearings.
In order to estimate the costs and time required, the bearing must be cleaned after dismounting and carefully checked. Logically, it is a solution that must first be evaluated by our technical department, but if viable, it would result in a solution that is entirely efficient, faster, cheaper, and more sustainable.
Refurbishment bearings process:
- Disassembly and Inspection
Disassembling the bearing
Cleaning the components
Measurement of components
Final inspection report - Restoration
Polishing of components - Reconstruction
Grinding of raceways
Component replacement (new balls and rollers, retainers…)
Replacement of rings - Bearing assembly & lubrication
- Bearing packing and shipping
In many cases, a studied and precise modification of a standard bearing makes it possible to meet the needs of our customers cost-effectively. Changing clearances is probably the most common modification, but we also regularly incorporate some elements made with custom materials that are indicated to withstand the most demanding working conditions.
These modifications can also be demanded to improve and facilitate the maintenance of the equipment, and to reduce its downtime.
Types of bearing modifications
- Special ball bearings and cylindrical rollers manufacturing.
- Manufacture of spherical and spherical plain rollers.
- Reconditioning of ball and cylindrical roller bearings.
- Remachining of bearing races to change clearances (Ex. C3 to C4)
- Bearing disassembly to replace steel or plastic retainers with bronze or phenolic ones.
- Disassembly of bearings to replace balls for ceramic balls.
- Add W33 or W26 to ball or roller bearings.
- Add tapered bore to ball or roller bearings.
- Add spherical OD and self-aligning rings to the outside diameter of bearings.
- Add localized holes for shear pins in the outside diameter of bearings.
- Manufacture of spacers for tapered ball and roller bearings.
- Preloaded angular contact ball bearings and radial ball bearings.
- Adding rings in grooves and in ball, spherical, cylindrical and tapered roller bearings.
- Manufacture of 5L and N5L NDH style bearings.
- Adding V-grooves to the outside diameter of bearings.
The retrofit of mechanical systems basically consists of updating or modernizing mechanical parts that have become outdated for current production requirements and that with their improvement or replacement we can renew and update the functionalities and improve the capacities of the production system.
Frequently, the need to update a mechanical system is motivated by the obsolescence of spare parts, by the need to add new functionalities and capacities to the production system, or by being able to make it compatible with new modules in a production line.
The high costs that new machinery would entail mean that more and more production plants are considering, once the amortization period of their products is over, retrofitting them, also adding features, applications and better security systems, adapting them to new regulations.
Obviously, the retrofit of industrial machines or heavy machinery is not simple and requires means, infrastructures, knowledge and experience that are not available to any company.
Vibration analysis – Condition monitoring
All rotating machinery has a vibration level that can be considered normal to its operation. When this level rises and becomes excessive, it is usually a sign that something is wrong.
Vibration analysis is one of the most widely used techniques both to assess the possible failures of a bearing or a mechanical part that has already shown anomalies, as well as to detect minor errors in time that could lead to more extensive damage. That is, it is used for both preventive and corrective maintenance.
The analysis of the state of the bearings includes comparisons of the vibration spectrum with the ideal spectrum established for said bearing by the manufacturer, this allows to establish where the failure or wear is most likely to be occurring.
Vibration analysis can accurately diagnose problems of:
- Imbalance
- Misalignment
- Clearances
- Rods
- Bent axles
- Eccentric pulleys
- Bearings
- Gears
- Electrical faults
Thermography or Temperature analysis
The main source of infrared radiation is heat or thermal radiation. Any object that has a temperature above absolute zero emits radiation in the infrared zone.
A large part of the problems that arise in mechanical industrial environments are preceded by changes in temperature that can be detected by heat radiation capture systems. The use of thermographic inspections within the predictive maintenance programs in heavy industry makes it possible to locate possible errors in a non-destructive way and thus prevent more complex breakdowns that could lead to production paralysis.
Analysis of lubricants
The analysis of lubricants is a recommended task for the predictive maintenance of industrial production systems, a necessary activity to check the state of wear of the internal mechanical components of the machines, and more specifically, that of those elements that rub against each other such as bearings.
Boroscopic Inspection
Boroscopic inspections are visual inspections in places inaccessible to direct visual inspection. To carry it out, we need optical equipment that allows it to move into hard-to-reach places. The borescope is the tool that is used and that gives its name to this type of inspection. It is a long and thin device in the form of a flexible rod that ends in an ultra-angular camera and is prepared to capture optimal images in low light conditions and transmits the images to an external monitor for them to be visualized and technically interpreted by qualified engineers.
Real-time TORQUE measurement engineering service
ABS, Atlantic Bearing is pleased to inform you that it has incorporated within its Engineering Service platform a real time in field torque measurement Service. This service consists of real-time measurement of torque and power in mechanical power transmission systems with the latest portable technology. Strain gauges can be easily installed safely on the application, Battery bank supplies power and through the deformation of the gauges a wireless transmitter allows the system to collect precise Data. Mathematical algorithms process the information and displays tables and graphs for ease of interpretation.
This service is applicable in multiple industries for customers who want to know the operational reliability of their equipment based on the rotating mechanical loads (torque and power) to which they are subjected.
Advantages
- Portability and easy installation, no modification or disassembly of the machine is required.
- Reliable and fast measurement, to which users can have remote access in real time from their mobile device or computer.
- Robust system, capable of working in almost any type of environment or application.
- The system provides clear and reliable results for decision making. Data storage devices with virtually unlimited capacity.
- ABS engineering support with elaboration of personalized final report with the results, conclusions and practical recommendations emanating from the measurement.