Slewing Bearing Technology Helps Reduce Emissions
January 16, 2025
Liebherr is highlighting its bearing solutions as a way of reducing a company’s environmental footprint.
Slewing bearings and slew drives are at the heart of machines in a wide range of applications, including excavators, cranes, tunnel boring machines, antennas, offshore cranes, bridges and wind turbines.
The company’s slew drives can be powered electrically, reducing noise and preventing the risk of oil leaks. Electrically driven slew drives are ideal for applications where no hydraulic systems are used. They offer a clean solution, especially in sensitive environments.
The electric motors are also highly adaptable and can be combined with various gears. Thanks to intermediate flanges, motors can be easily integrated and installed in a space-saving manner. Electrically powered slew drives excel in precise positioning tasks, as their power control allows for accurate movements.
Liebherr’s solid lubrication, Lifinity, eliminates the need for regular relubrication. In this process, a heated polymer-oil mixture is introduced into the heated bearing. As it cools, it forms a stable layer that provides long-term lubrication for the bearing. A major advantage is the significant reduction in maintenance, as regular relubrication is no longer necessary, leading to considerable savings in operating costs and time. Conventional greases and oils can leak and pollute the environment, but with Lifinity, there’s no such risk. Lifinity also reduces the risk of corrosion, enhancing the longevity of the bearing.
Bearing clearance monitoring (BCM) provides a digital solution for measuring wear in slewing bearings. Built-in sensors allow precise measurements of axial and radial wear without requiring technicians to perform manual checks in hard-to-reach areas. Permanently installed sensors enable quick wear measurement via a web app, which can reduce downtime by up to 75%.
An upgrade to the BCM can be seamlessly integrated into a system without the need for additional measuring devices or gateways, reducing system complexity and allowing users to analyze measurement data within their own systems.
All these components are future-ready and play a vital role in making operations more efficient, safer and environmentally friendly, says Liebherr.
