The history of energy efficiency in industrial motors is really the story of Baldor Electric Company. For almost 100 years, Baldor has led the industry in developing products that deliver greater performance and reliability while using less electricity. From the company’s founding in the 1920s through today, Baldor has introduced one efficiency enhancing advancement after another. In fact, many of the advancements initiated by Baldor have later been adopted as industry standards.

The issue of energy efficiency for electric motors and drives is becoming increasingly relevant as electricity costs continue to rise. Companies are now competing in an environment of rising energy costs and the uncertainty of available electricity. These dynamics require the kind of forward-thinking industrial motor, drive, and generator supplier that anticipates customer needs and delivers products that save money and improve productivity. That company is Baldor.

Why is Energy Efficiency Important?

Electric motor-driven systems used in industrial processes consume some 679 billion kWh or 63 percent of all electricity used in U.S. industry, according to a Department of Energy report published in 1998. The report goes on to reveal that industrial motor electricity consumption could be reduced by up to 18 percent if companies were to apply “proven efficiency technologies and practices.” Specifically, the DOE recommends motor efficiency upgrades and application improvements. The purpose of this brochure is to show you the energy saving opportunities from using premium efficient motors and drives. The opportunities are real.

In 1992, the Energy Policy Act (EPAct) established minimum efficiency standards for industrial electric motors built after October 1997. Yet, only about 10 percent of all motors in use today comply with the minimum efficiency levels the Act mandates. When you factor in the savings potential of using adjustable speed drives in many applications, it’s easy to see that the environment, along with your profitability, stand to benefit significantly.

History of The Timken Company

For more than 100 years, Timken has focused on value creation for diverse industries and market segments. We deliver a variety of friction management and power transmission solutions for applications ranging from aircraft and automobiles to mining equipment and medical instruments.  We’ve grown considerably since our founding in 1899, but solving customer problems is still at the core of our business, just like it was when founder Henry Timken patented a tapered roller bearing design that made life easier for freight wagon operators and their mules.

The Beginning

Henry Timken, a St. Louis carriage maker, recognized that heavy freight wagons had a hard time making sharp turns. To solve the problem, he applied a tapered roller bearing design that could handle both radial (weight) and thrust (cornering force) loads. There were several customer benefits. First, the application ran more smoothly, reducing repair and replacement costs. In some cases, the bearings improved wagon performance so much that fewer mules were required to pull them. Finally, better cornering meant less chance of losing a load of goods. Always focused on customer benefit, Henry quickly realized that the tapered roller bearing could improve product performance in many other applications as well. He and his sons, H.H. and William Timken, quickly founded The Timken Roller Bearing and Axle Company and began building the business into what it is today.

• Interchange by Part # and Size with Corresponding Elements
• Variety of Insert Elements fo different applications
• On-line Drive Selection Program and CAD Drawings for StarFlex and MaskaFlex Types
• Made from High Strength Cast Iron
• Coupling Selection Process, Service Factors and Ratings in Baldor-Maska catalog

From the Standpoint of …

Precision

Since the assembly of ball and roller bearings involves very careful processing of the finest material, and delivery to the user in a finely adjusted condition , ball and roller bearings are used where precision of rotating elements must be of the highest order.  The external dimensions of bearings are standardized as to nominal diameters and working tolerances, and in ball bearing and roller bearing plants of the present day the finest equipment is used, not only for processing but for the inspection of component parts, in order to insure the precision demanded by the principle of the bearing and the service into which it is to be placed. 

Accurate and true-running bearings are for the first time possible with the ball and roller types, vibration, chatter,m and other undesirable conditions which may arise in plain bearings being largely eliminated by the proper selection and applications of anti-friction bearings to many types of machinery.  Gears can be kept in exact alignment and adjustment.  Grinding wheels can best supported as to produce the finest work, woodworking tools can be made to produce a more accurate finish, and at higher rates of speeds than would be possible with plain bearings.  Parts which must be maintained with small but definite clearances are most successfully carried on ball bearings, and these qualities are only available during the initial period of operation but extend through their long and useful life. 

Elsewhere are described the various degrees of precision  which are available to the user of ball bearings.  The so-called S.A.E. tolerances themselves are precision tolerances, but for even finer requirements still further degrees of accuracy are obtainable.

Lubrication

The load-carrying element in the plain or journal bearing is a film of lubricant forced between the rotating and stationary surfaces by the action of the journal itself, and by the tendency of the lubricant to adhere to the stationary surface on the other side.  This action drives a wedge of lubricant between the surfaces and separates them from actual metal – to – metal contact.  The plain bearing is forced to rely upon this action for its effectiveness , while in the ball and roller bearing this condition does not apply, as rolling elements are interposed between the raceways.  Lubricant, therefore, takes what may be termed a secondary (although important) place in the functioning of an anti-friction bearing.  It lubricate the retainers, where they are in slight sliding contact with the balls, as well as the twilight zone where rolling friction verges on sliding friction, and it serves as a protector for the finely finished surfaces of the balls and raceways.

These considerations are responsible for the starting friction of ball and roller bearings being very low, and of plain bearings high.  They press lubricating problems on teh designer and user of the plain journal to a far greater extent than with anti-friction bearings, where the rolling elements are kept in their proper relation with respect to the races by the retainer or separator, and maintain their location during service — in operation and out.

The design of housing for lubrication and the selection procedure in applying lubricant to the various ball bearing designs are treated separately in this catalog.  In summing up, it is well to remember that anti-friction bearings will require comparatively little lubricant and offer a fairly wide choice of grease or oils.  Maintenance is low and periods between lubrication can be unusually long.

From the Standpoint of

Friction….

The frictionless characteristics of ball and roller bearings are well known.  While of little practical use in the actual bearing design, perhaps, it is interesting to compare the abilities of various types of bearings as measured by the coefficient of friction.

One of the outstanding differences between antifriction bearings and plain bearings, for example, is that the antifriction type will maintain an almost uniformly low coefficient of friction during wide variations in loading, whereas the plain bearing will under the same conditions exhibit a coefficient which varies greatly.

Another fact it is well to  remember is that during non-operation of plain bearings the load or weight of parts generally forces out the oil, destroying the film on which its operating effectiveness rests, and since there is no rotation to  build it up again, this leads to metal-to –metal contact and high starting friction in plain bearing machinery.  Further, this momentary sliding contact between the metals in the plain bearing produces probably the greater portion of the total wear in a plain journal, as observed after a period of operation.

The friction characteristics of plain bearings are largely influenced by variation in the lubricating medium, and while anti-friction bearings do require a careful selection of lubricant, they are not nearly so sensitive to changes in type of characteristics.

As contrasted with the plain journal in which the oil is expelled during periods of inoperation, the anti-friction bearing presents rolling elements (either balls or rollers) between the load-carrying surfaces at all time, and therefore does not suffer from a similar action.  The absence of this sliding friction at the start of operation has the effect of reducing the power required to start machines, and where a number of motors is involved this may be an item of considerable interest to the user.

Reliability

Anti-friction bearings could not have gained the widespread acceptance they have in the past few years without embodying the utmost reliability.  Airplanes, railway cars of conventional and high-speed design, steel mill equipment, pulp and paper machinery, a great variety of machine tools, an almost unbelievable amount of textile machinery, mining equipment, delicate apparatus such as gyroscopes, signal relays, train control equipment – indeed an almost endless list of successful applications can be credited to anti-friction bearings.  Coupled with this, the nationwide facilities of a great number of bearing companies make ball bearings readily available items.  Replacement or rebabbitting of plain journals gives way to long, carefree service, and at economical costs.

Modern production and specialization has made almost every unit of apparatus vital in the accomplishment of a definite purpose, and each unit depending upon another must perform exactly as advertised.  Reliability, therefore, is not a quality to be considered only in connection with a given piece or type of apparatus, but rather something that spreads over all industry.  Throughout the processing of almost any manufactured article, or even raw material, the effect of anti-friction bearings can be observed today.  In the deepest mines ball and roller bearings are permitting high efficiency and low cost.  In the actual obtaining, handling, conveying, and delivery of raw material in steel mills almost every process depends to some extent on anti-friction bearings.  In transportation in the air, on land, and on sea, they are contributing to the prompt and efficient dispatch of materials to thousands of manufacturing plants where more efficient machinery is delivering products of an endless variety to their respective fields of usefulness.  In the textile field utilization of anti-friction bearings has been carried out to a remarkable degree.  Millions of automobiles are creating records of economical performance from advantages obtained with anit-friction bearings.  In power transmission, in the ventilating industry, in the paper industry and in many other specialized fields they are outstanding in their performance.

Part 2 of 2 — Modern Development of Anti-Friction Bearings … from the standpoint of Precision  and Lubrication coming on Tuesday, November 23 …

——ME——

Sally — I’ve been with Bearings Incorporated since 1976 beginning in general office and working through shipping and recieving. After leaving and pursuing other interests, found myself returned in 1982; being hired again for general office tasks and delivery at our office in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin.  Throughout the years; I’ve worked my way up to controller / systems administrator.  Now have taken on “Blog Queen” and when the website of Bearings Incorporated becomes live, will add Webmaster to my list as well.  I’m excited about the new website, and the new ideas that it will encourage; and can not wait for the launch!  I enjoy working at Bearings Incorporated for many reasons … one of which is the opportunity to spread my wings and never come to work without the idea that I will not learn something new today.In my personal time I enjoy crafting, dog training,  sitting and getting lost in the concertina, or the organ/keyboards where I can get lost for a good chunk of time; and volunteering. I basically leave the “technical enjoyments” for the office.

Our library -- availablity of old catalogues .. Fafnir -- 1947

The history of Anti-Friction bearings extends into antiquity.  It is known that primitive peoples used hard, round objects for a number of purposes, more notably as missiles, the sling supplementing the club in early warfare.  Then coconuts and round stones were used on occasion to eliminate such friction as primordial man encountered, for he soon discovered that he could move a log or a slab of stone more easily in this fashion.  When recorded history is reached, it is found that balls and rollers were often used to ease the path of sledges and the movement of building material, such as in the building of the Pyramids.

It was the invention of the wheel, and of the wheel and axle, that brought the plain bearing into existence, however.  From that day to this, the effort to improve on this ancient contrivance has  been virtually continuous.  The first wheels were made entirely of wood, but as metals gradually came into use the endeavor to lessen friction was restricted to the improvement of these metals.  With the advent of lubrication, the plain bearing slowly became more efficient. 

Through all these centuries there were no attempt to sue balls or rollers in bearings supporting wheels or axles, and actually antifriction bearings made but little progress during the first three of four thousand years of which there is a record; it was not until the 19th century that any headway was made.

The commercial development of the anti-friction bearing dates from four major inventions of the 19th century — the steam engine, and the electric motor, the bicycle, and the automobile.

With the coming of steam and electrical power, machines were developed to operate at higher and higher speeds.  Friction graduated from a minor annoyance to a major obstacle.  In short, anti-friction bearings became a necessity. 

But, curiously enough, the ball bearing owes it’s commercial debut to the bicycle more than to anything else.  Rapid strides in the development of ball bearings were made during the bicycle era, chief of which was the comprehensive study of the properties of balls and bearing engaged in the by Stribeck and Goodman at about the turn of the 19th century.

These studies are still looked on as the basis of ball bearing designing, and the elaborate researches gave the ball bearing a sound, scientific foundation.  As the automobile supplemented earlier forms of transportation, anti-friction bearings came into their own, making the motor car possible, and the latter in turn building up the anti-friction bearing industry to its present full-grown status.

—–Kathy—–

Kathy has been part of the Bearings Incorporated family since the 1980′s, beginning in the bookkeeping department. After leaving for a bit to pursue other interests; came back to home base in 2006 where she currently works in inside sales. Her best interest is with our customers.During her personal time, she enjoys gardening and “growing things” .

—Jim W—

Jim has worked with Bearings Incorporated since 1977.  He has gone through many names.  When he first started, we didn’t want people with the same name, and since “Jim” was taken; (ie…Current President), Jim W was forced to change his name, and chose “JL” for many many years.  It was just since 2008; that he actually has gotten his legal name returned to him. 

Jim began with Bearings Incorporated as shipping and recieving.  He has moved up through the ranks and is currently working in inside sales.  He just might be the one to take care of you if you stop in at the counter with your bearing needs.

In Jim’s spare time, he enjoys spending time in the company of friends.

 —— Kim ——

Kim has been with Bearings Incorporated since 1999, where she originally began as a driver for our Milwaukee office.  She was promoted into Shipping and Recieving, as well as helped with the data entry that needed to be done. 

Currently, she works as one of our competant inside sales staff, and can step into almost any position that needs assistance. 

During Kim’s free time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends.