Proven Technology De-Risks These Bearings for Turbomachinery Applications
Yes, it takes a truly revolutionary technology to solve the innumerable issues inherent in the turbomachinery of the oil and gas industry.
What is the most debilitating problem for rotating equipment today? Well, that’s debatable. But downtime, operational performance, and safety are the leading candidates. And all of these issues have a common cause: contact.
Contact is the underlying factor working against almost all bearings for turbomachinery. But, there is a proven solution gaining traction in the oil and gas industry.
A Non-Contact Bearing Solution
Bently BearingsTM by New Way is revolutionizing oil and gas turbomachinery equipment because they provide a non-contact bearing solution. They utilize New Way’s proprietary Externally-Pressurized Porous (EPP) Media to enable rotating shafts to ‘float’ on a very small film of gas, usually less than 0.0005 inches.
Without contact, these bearings operate almost frictionlessly at much-higher speeds than conventional bearings, running without contact even at start-up. They feature load capacities to 400 psi and can withstand temperatures to 400°C while producing very little heat themselves.
As a result, Bently Bearings deliver improved reliability and process uptime, lower energy consumption, and a smaller environmental footprint.
Oil-Less Operation Further Reduces Maintenance Requirements
Critically, because they are oil-less, Bently Bearings radically reduce maintenance requirements, particularly in the harsh, often dirty environment of oil and gas processing.
Without the oil that causes many of the industry’s performance issues and downtime, Bently Bearings provide a superior platform for meeting and surpassing stringent industry operational and emissions requirements.
Replacing Conventional Bearings in Turbomachinery Applications
Contact is the killer. The friction that results, causes conventional rolling-element or hydrodynamic bearings costly wear, performance, safety and downtime issues. Even some of the newer, non-contact technologies are subject to constraints that are solved by a Bently Bearing.
Foil bearings, for example, are only capable of handling small loads and are subject to wear-causing contact at start-up. By contrast, magnetic bearings do allow for full non-contact operation, but they are costly, have a complex control system, and require “back-up” bearings in the event of failure. They also tend to have issues with heat generation and high loads.
Bently Bearings solve for each of these issues, and much more. They are specifically engineered for:
- Small, high-speed machines where they replace foil or rolling element bearings, and
- Large turbines, motor generators, and compressors, where they replace oil hydrodynamic or magnetic bearings.
New Way’s Bently Bearings enable innovative new equipment designs, retrofit easily into existing turbomachinery configurations, and do not require “back-up” bearings.
Bently Bearings for Turbomachinery: 3 Primary Uses
- Bently Bearings can be used as radial bearings or in place of conventional tilt-pad, hydrodynamic, oil-lubricated thrust bearings in rotating equipment, such as compressors, turboexpanders, steam and gas turbines, as well as in pumps or motors. When used as thrust bearings, Bently Bearings can also provide a simplified sealing functionality.
- These non-contact bearings can also be used on hard or soft-mounted balancing machines to prevent hard-roll damage to rotor journals, reduce audible and electrical noise, and to create a better axis-of-rotation, which leads to improved balance.
- Bently Bearings can also be used to assist with the handling of rotating equipment during manufacturing, maintenance or repairs. The porous media bearing pads are exceptionally robust, providing for extremely long life even in dirty factory environments.
Further, the ability to turn the supply gas pressure on and off enables a technician to easily rotate the rotor to the desired position and then lock it down. This eliminates the need for cranes or other mechanical assists to lift and rotate the rotor.
Proven Technology De-Risks These Bearings for Turbomachinery Applications
Nor are Bently Bearings new to Turbomachinery. Don Bently, who sadly passed away in 2012, spent a lifetime developing techniques to actively control rotor instabilities in turbomachinery and other applications. After acquiring the Bently Pressurized Bearing Company in 2014, New Way made it its mission to expand on Bently’s work.
New Way has a strong foundation for this mission, with over 25 years of experience applying its own proprietary Porous Media TechnologyTM to create disruptive innovation in industries as diverse as aerospace, automotive, medical and consumer electronics, as well for many other applications requiring a non-contact, high-precision solution.
Welcome to the Revolution
If you’re ready to transform your market today, contact us right away for your complimentary consultation!