Mill Bearings

Sugar Mill Bearings
Page 1 of 3
The Sugar Engineers

Home | News | Prices | Engineering Guides | Rapid Design | Material Properties | Whats New |
Factories | Links | Contact |
Mill Bearings
Bearing Pressures
The maximum pressure that a bearing can withstand is mainly a
function of the bearing material. The bronzes that are common in
sugar mills have a recommended maximum bearing pressures of up
to 100 MPa for phosphor bronze and 50 MPa for tin-bronzes.
Standard sugar mill practise limits the bearing pressure to about 10
MPa.
Wed, 26 November 2014
SUGAR PRICE
25 Nov 2014
White
$/tonne
415.80
25 Nov 2014
Raw
/lb
16.00
Materials For Plain Bearings

The two essential elements in a plain bearing are the bearing or
bearing material itself, and the shaft or moving member. The bearing
or bearing material is located in a housing or structure, and may or
may not be integral with it. Separating these two elements is the
lubricant, introduced, generally in the case of sugar mills, by external
pressure feeding.
The material of the shaft or journal is established from considerations
of strength and rigidity, and will invariably be steel.
Because the conditions under which bearings must operate in service
may vary over a wide range, it is necessary that bearing materials be
used which have certain desirable properties. Amongst these we must
include such factors as
mechanical strength;
softness and low melting point;
low modulus of elasticity;
corrosion resistance;
high thermal conductivity; and of course,
economic considerations.
Since these factors cannot all be obtained to a desirable degree in a
single material, it is necessary in practice to make a compromise.
The most common bearing materials consist of
a. white metals,
You created
this PDF from an application that is not licensed to print to novaPDF printer (http://www.novapdf.com)
http://www.sugartech.co.za/extraction/millbearings/index.php
11/26/2014
Sugar Mill Bearings
Page 2 of 3
b. copperbase alloys, and
Sugar Books
c. aluminium-base alloys.
White Metal
White metals is a term used to include the tin and lead-base metals,
broadly referred to as Babbitts (after Isaac Babbitt, 1839), and since
such metals are highly competitive, they are recommended for most
applications where the loading is not severe. Babbitt bearings are
manufactured with the white metal lined onto steel, cast iron and
copper base alloys. Since white metal suffers a reduction in fatigue
strength with increase in temperature, and this reduction is a function
of thickness, it is usual to limit the thickness to between about
0.100-0.175 mm, and thicknesses of only 0.025-0.050 mm are used
with copperlead over the back-up material. White metal is not
commonly used as a sgar mill bearing material
Copper-base Alloys
Copper-base alloys including lead-bronze, gun-metal and phosphorbronze are widely used as bearing materials.
Lead-bronze is the cheapest, and is used for general service bearings.
It has a low tendency to seizure, in common with the white metal
bearings, and has greater fatigue strength to withstand higher
temperatures. Lead bronze bushes are frequently used in the form of
single, solid units, i.e. as bushes without the supporting shell
surrounding the bearing material, as is required of the Babbitt or
white metal bearing materials.
Fuels from Sugar

Crops
U.S. Department
of...
New $23.12
Best $19.45
The International
Sugar Trade
Tony Hannah,
Donal...
New $232.75
Best $221.17
The Chemistry and
Technology of
Furf...
K.J. Zeitsch
New $270.75
Best $195.03
Cane to Sugar
Julie Murray
New $23.08
Best $20.71
Handbook of Sugar
Refining
Chung Chi Chou
New $460.47
Best $69.00
Gun-metal provides a relatively cheap and easy to machine material,

having good bearing properties and capable of withstanding
somewhat higher loads than the lead-bronze alloys. This alloy also
has good resistance to corrosion in sea water.
Privacy Information
Phosphor-bronze is used for heavily loaded bearings, where high

frictional stresses are likely to occur. Because of the high hardness of
this material, it demands the use of a hardened steel journal.
Typical Sugar Mill Bearings

Rein in Cane Sugar Engineering states that typically sugar mill
bearings are tin bronzes with the following composition
Cu 84%
Sn 10%
Pb 3%
Zn 3%
Lubrication
You created
11/26/2014
Sugar Mill Bearings
Page 3 of 3
Sugar mill shafts do not turn sufficiently fast for a hydrodynamic film
of lubricant to be formed between the journal and the bearing.
Consequently hydrostatic lubrication is required. This is achieved by
supplying lubricant to the bearing under pressure. Under these
conditions, attention must be given to the adequate supply of
lubricant at all times, and in particular to the location of oil supply
holes and grooves.
Bitumin based lubricants are often used in sugar mill bearings.
Bearing Loads and Sizes

Specific roll loads are in the range of 2 to 3 MN per square metre of
projected roll area. This together with the allowable bearing pressure
mentioned above indicates that the total bearing area should be about
20% to 30% of the projected roll area
It is usual practise to allow the top roll of a sugar mill to float in the
vertical direction to:
keep a nearly constant pressure on the mat of bagasse in the
mill
allow some throughput variation without sacrificing extraction
protect the mill from damage from tramp iron
Typically hydraulic rams together with a gas accumulator provide the
downward force on the bearing caps to resist the upward force of the
bagasse on the mill roll. The gas accumulator acts as an air spring.
The hydraulic oil in the system is not compressible, but the gas in the
accumulator is and it is this gas that has the give that allows the roll
to float. The gas in the accumulator is precharged with a particular
gas pressure. The higher the precharge pressure the softer the spring
rate. A low precharge pressure will make the system very stiff and
may not allow sufficient float to let tramp iron through the mill, which
may cause damage. A high precharge pressure will make the system
very soft and the top roll bearing may continually rise up to its
maximum lift. This means the mill headstock may be subjected to
very high forces, not anticipated in design.
The correct precharge pressure which ensures that the top roll floats
about its design position is important to ensure good extraction and
to protect the mill from damage
You created
11/26/2014

Mill Bearings

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Mill Bearings

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Sugar Mill Bearings

The Sugar Engineers

Wed, 26 November 2014

Materials For Plain Bearings

Sugar Mill Bearings

b. copperbase alloys, and

Fuels from Sugar

Gun-metal provides a relatively cheap and easy to machine material,

Phosphor-bronze is used for heavily loaded bearings, where high

Typical Sugar Mill Bearings

Sugar Mill Bearings

Bearing Loads and Sizes

You might also like