SKFbearing lubricationguide

Sitemap                 Registered Office: ERIKS N.V. - Chamber of Commerce North-Holland: 37 01 32 89 - VAT Number: NL003.076.490.B02

Thank you for visiting our website. Your personal privacy is absolutely respected and protected by the website. To help you understand how the website collects, uses and protects your personal information, be sure to read the websitePrivacy Policy. Thank you!

Types oflubricationinbearing

This only applies to plain bearings. The manufacturer applies this lubricant. Coated bearings are available - you don't need to re-grease them and they usually need very little maintenance.

High SpeedBearing Oil

Bearing Oilfor Skates

The viscosity index value of the base oil in the bearing grease indicates how well the oil will function at certain temperatures, speed and load conditions. The higher the value, the thicker the grease. The lower the value, the thinner the grease. Choosing the wrong viscosity index value may lead to friction and/or overheating of the bearing.

Lubricants consist of three substances. These substances are combined in the form of an effective, semi-fluid grease that is suitable for specific applications.

BearingLubricant Spray

Don't wait too long before you grease the bearings. This is essential for an optimum service life. Lubrication reduces the risk of dirt and defects. But ... when is the right time? It's difficult to say because there are a number of points to take into consideration, including:

First, determine what sort of bearing you have, and then you can choose the type of grease. Do you have a plain bearing or a bearing with rolling elements (balls, rollers etc.)? A plain bearing has a PTFE coating, and you don't need to re-grease it. However, a roller bearing needs to be lubricated with grease or oil.

How much grease do I need to put in a bearing? The amount of bearing grease is indicated by a percentage. This indicates the grease volume relative to the free internal space of the bearing. Does the bearing need to be completely filled with grease? In that case, the percentage is 100%. The manufacturer of the bearings indicates the standard percentage for the particular type of bearing. This is usually between 20% and 40%. The rotational speed of the bearing largely determines the amount of the percentage. If the rotational speed is lower than 50% of the maximum permissible speed, we recommend a lubricant percentage of 50% to 65%. If the rotational speed is higher than 50% of the maximum permissible speed, we recommend a lubricant percentage of 30% to 50%.

If you can't work it out for yourself and if you need any advice on lubrication, our product specialists will be happy to give you personal advice.

Oil is often used for gear boxes and gear units. We also see it used for bearing housings in extreme conditions such as high rotational speeds and high temperatures. Oil is the ideal sort of lubricant for these kind of situations.

Bearing grease prevents the metal parts of bearings from coming in contact with each other. Therefore, it is essential for the good function and service life of the bearings. You need to re-grease the bearings after most applications. The old lubricant may still be in place, but it eventually dries up and this makes the lubricant less effective. So, get greasing!

Extra tip: the SKF Lube Select is also a handy tool for determining the right lubricant. Our engineers use them, too. Fill in the details to find out which SKF lubricant you need.

This type of lubricant is suitable for sealed and open bearings. Sealed bearings, such as 2RS and ZZ, are pre-filled with grease. In principle, you won't need to re-grease them, except for bearing units. You can grease these often because the units are usually used in exceptional operating conditions, such as extremely high or low temperatures and a humid or highly polluted environment. You need to re-grease open bearings regularly. Open bearings are delivered from the factory without a grease filling and should be filled with the selected or recommended lubricant before installation.

At medium rotational speeds (up to 300,000 rpm for roller bearings and up to 210,000 rpm for roller bearings, up to 270,000 rpm for cylindrical bearings), medium temperature (50-100 ⁰C) and medium load (C/P ~ 8).

Bearing lubricationchart

Manual lubrication: you can use a tool (cordless grease gun, grease pump or a grease filler) to apply the grease to the machine or application.

People often choose to manually grease. Are there several lubrication points or is the lubrication complex? It is then better to opt for automatic lubrication. Automatic lubrication is preferable in all cases. It is more operationally reliable. For some applications or industries, it is often better to use one method consistently. The table below shows the industry and application, in combination with our recommended lubrication method.

HiPerFlon® is a rotary lip seal that features an ID lip that seals dynamically on shaft and with O-ring centered on the OD. They are suitable for medium to high speed with low pressure application. It is widely chosen when the rotary speeds exceed the capabilities of elastomeric seals. With the unique sealing lip construction and excellent self-lubricated features of PTFE compounds, the PTFE rotary lip seal provides superior performance over conventional rubber oil seals. Typical speeds for HiPerFlon® seals are 25 m/s (4925 fpm) and above. PTFE rotary shaft seals are available in a wide variety of PTFE compounds, and utilize common O-ring material choices like fluorocarbon, silicone, nitrile, and EPDM. The use of standard O-ring and PTFE compounds create an easily adaptable solution for all kinds of high-speed applications. Standard HiPerFlon® sizes are precision machined to fit inch-fractional and metric gland geometries, and in-house processing allows custom seal cross sections and diameters to meet any customer request.

The table below contains a useful overview. You can see immediately which SKF lubricant is suitable for various operating conditions.

Lubricants are normally based on a mineral oil and a chemical thickening agent. The later is often described as the ‘soap skeleton’. Various compositions make the type of lubricant suitable for certain operating conditions, including high or low temperatures, rotational speed and load. Lubricants for bearings can be sub-divided into several types:

Automatic lubrication: this can be done in two ways - with a ready-to-use system (automatic single-point lubrication system or automatic multi-point lubrication system) or a customised system.

Industries with an enormous amount of lubrication points which may also require variable lubrication frequencies and grease levels)