SKF is a global leader in slewing bearing design and manufacture, drawing on decades of application insight, manufacturing expertise and a life cycle management philosophy to provide customers with high-performance solutions across a wide range of types and sizes. The portfolio includes both standard and customised slewing bearings in diverse designs, with outside diameters ranging from 0,1 to 18 m, all tailored to meet the demands of particular applications. SKF’s offering spans slewing bearings from four and eight-point contact ball designs to specialised solutions such as crossed cylindrical roller bearings, triple row roller bearings and wire race bearings.
What sets SKF apart from other providers is the ability to supply slewing rings with integrated advanced monitoring, lubrication and sealing systems, delivering fully tailored solutions that ensure higher reliability and longer service life, optimising rotating equipment performance and lowering total ownership costs for customers.
Replacing industrial bearings can be both costly and energy intensive, whereas bearing remanufacturing provides a more economical and environmentally sustainable alternative. SKF enhances this value proposition by extending its added-value services for slewing bearings to include remanufacturing, delivering savings, efficiency and sustainability in one solution. A slewing bearing with only 30% left of its calculated service life can be well worth remanufacturing. SKF’s standardised remanufacturing processes can significantly extend the service life of critical equipment by rebuilding bearings to the exact specifications of the original manufactured product. This is achieved through a carefully controlled combination of reused, repaired and new parts, ensuring performance, reliability and sustainability while maximising value from every bearing.
A slewing ring, also known as a slewing bearing, is a large-diameter, specialised rolling element bearing engineered to accommodate axial and radial loads simultaneously while also managing significant tilting moments. Comprising an inner and outer ring, one of which typically incorporates a gear, these bearings serve as the mechanical joint connecting two structural components of a machine, enabling them to rotate relative to one another. Their high load-carrying capacity and exceptional stiffness ensure rigid bearing performance, while maintaining low friction and delivering a long service life. Slewing bearings can also integrate supplementary systems such as driving mechanisms, control devices, lubrication systems, monitoring technologies and sealing cassettes, creating a compact, multifunctional solution that elevates both performance and durability.
Slewing rings fulfil three essential functions:
• Distributing loads by acting as the primary structural link, safely transferring massive weights such as lifted loads or heavy machine cabs from one part of a machine to another.
• Enabling controlled rotation that allows equipment to swivel, tilt or rotate, often through a full 360° even under extreme stress.
• Providing integrated power transmission, with many designs incorporating internal or external gear teeth that mesh with a drive motor to combine support and rotation in a single compact solution.
Selecting the right slewing bearing can be complex, particularly when stringent technical, reliability or economic requirements must be met. This is where SKF’s application engineering services come to the fore, assisting customers through advanced calculations and simulations and employing state-of-the-art analysis methods to optimise and validate the most suitable design tailored to individual application requirements.
SKF’s high-performance slewing bearings are engineered for a wide range of demanding applications. In the tough, heavy-duty conditions of the mining industry, materials handling equipment such as excavators, bucket wheel excavators and stackers/reclaimers face immense challenges where reliability and uptime are critical. Slewing bearing solutions play a vital role in ensuring the performance, durability and efficiency of these machines. Their versatility extends across multiple sectors, with slewing bearings widely applied in wind turbines, tunnel boring machines, forestry and rail vehicles, dockside, deck and mobile cranes, water treatment equipment, bottle filling systems and surveillance systems such as radars and cameras. They also find application in the medical field and the marine industry where they are used in offshore buoys, tidal turbines and marine pods.
SKF’s ability to support the full value chain at every stage, paired with a multi-disciplinary approach integrating engineering expertise, advanced technologies and a comprehensive portfolio of expert services, ensures reliable product delivery and sustained customer confidence. The local SKF team extends slewing ring installation expertise through a collaborative effort with European colleagues, which also serves as a valuable knowledge transfer opportunity, upskilling local technicians in the precise art of slewing bearing installation and reinforcing SKF’s long-term commitment to performance, partnership and technical leadership. This holistic approach drives asset optimisation and underpins plant and operational sustainability, enabling customers to achieve lasting value and resilience within the most demanding industrial environments.
| Tel: | +27 11 821 3500 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.skf.co.za |
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