SKF (www.skf.com) has expanded its Nautilus bearing range to provide wind industry designers with greater freedom to develop various types of turbines and direct drive, turbines with a gearbox, mounted on shafts, with inner or outer ring rotation or directly bolted on the surrounding structure.

“With the new range of SKF Nautilus bearings, SKF continues to be at the forefront of innovations. The development benefits manufacturers and the growing service sector for repairs, upgrades and replacements and contributes to reducing the cost of energy,” said Andreas Urban, Business Engineer at SKF Renewable Energy.

Optimizing wind turbine design and operation, the new range of bearings now offers an option to integrate a bolted inner ring, effectively eliminating the surrounding structure’s influences of fits and tolerances, resulting to higher operational safety and reliability and reduced pre-load variation. The bearings also feature integrated pre-greasing and seal to reduce the risk of leakage and contamination while optimizing lubrication.

The company’s Nautilus bearing range has been specifically designed to allow easy replacement of seal above the turbine. A polyurethane or rubber material helps achieve increased durability, high sealing performance and reduce maintenance costs.

Aside from saving time and effort, the bearings also simplify mounting and dismounting as they come with integrated seal and bolted inner ring.

The SKF Nautilus bearings offer special surface treatments that protect against corrosion as well as increase friction between mating surfaces. Meanwhile, its single-pocket segmented cage option delivers a higher degree of flexibility to further increase reliability and cope with deflections in operational conditions.