Bearing Challenges in the Food & Beverage Industries
The food and beverage industries present unique problems and challenges to bearing manufacturers. Baking 10,000 pies a day, for example, demands automated processes and equipment, including baking pies on a conveyor belt that travels through a 500° furnace. The bearings take a beating from the extreme heat and require regular maintenance to keep them lubricated.
Certain design sacrifices are made to keep the bearings outside the furnace to avoid increased maintenance and change in bearing size and performance due to heat. High-temperature bearings and synthetic lubricants add costs and downtime to the baking production line. Additional issues may include high-pressure wash down failure, ingress of water and dirt, and product contamination.
Bearings Must Provide Smooth Operation and Greater Durability
Today, each individual instance of a bearing now requires a scientific selection of the most suitable materials, often a composite of a variety of engineering resins compounded with reinforcing fibers and solid lubricant materials to ensure tribological optimization. Additionally, bearings are custom designed in terms of size, shape, and special features and are often part of a custom designed manufacturing line.
GGB Bearing Technology, the world’s largest manufacturer of high-performance, self-lubricating, and pre-lubricated bearings with over 50,000 customers worldwide, has an extensive product research and development program carried out at its state-of-the-art “Center of Excellence for Solid Polymer Bearing Technology.” GGB offers the widest variety of bearings meeting application, safety, regulatory, and environmental standards.
GGB’s new EP Series of high-performance solid polymer bearings are optimized for use in food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. The EP series is durable, maintenance-free, and operates in high-temperature environments such as baking ovens.
In addition to food and beverage applications GGB’s EP Series is suitable for automated bag filling equipment, case erecting equipment, form, fill, and seal machines, blow molding machines, meat processing equipment, confections processing equipment, control valves, bottling equipment, palletizing and handling equipment, and labeling equipment.
