Abstract:
Bucket Elevator Shaft Seal Design Quadruples Bearing Life. Dust ingress into bearings is one of the great causes of premature bearing failure on bucket elevators. By selecting the right bearing housing and position, combined with this special dust seal arrangement, you can get quadruple the bearing life. The article provides the full details of the low pressure dust leak seal design along with a sketch of the successful set-up.
Keywords: bucket elevator shaft seal, bearing dust seal, dust leak protection, bearing housing dust seal.
Below is a sketch of a dust seal arrangement that tripled the bearing life of the bearing in the housing. It went from 12 months at best to over 4 years without a failure. Combining the end cover sealed bearing housing mounted off the elevator frame with this separate dust seal arrangement where the shaft entered the frame, it more than quadrupled bearing life.
You will need to make the seal housing that mounts to the bucket elevator, or to any low shaft velocity – low pressure dust leak situation, from commercially available carbon steel. The secret behind its success is that the primary seals are in a separate housing to the bearing and provide multiple and redundant sealing before the dust can escape the bucket elevator.
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