Maintenance Free Bearings




Application:
The different sections of the stinger construction are joined by steel shafts in bronze
bushings, locked by keeper plates bolted to the shaft and the construction. Although
this should be a static application it appeared that the shafts tended to rotate. Bolts
on several keeper plates had sheared off and one shaft had worked itself sideways
by almost 50mm. Static friction between shafts and bronze bushings appeared to be
so high that the forces and torques caused by the micro motions were far higher than
anticipated. When this was discovered the concerned bronze bushings were
replaced by D-Glide FS bushings (D-glide FS is a high load, high stiffness variety of
the D-glide F). Average bearing pressures in this application can go up to as much
as 180 MPA.



Advantages of the D-Glide solution
- Low torques because of low friction
- No corrosion
- Easy installation




Offshore pipe-lay vessel: Picture of the joints
with the keeper plates visible.