SKF takes reliability to the trenches with maintenance free Y Bearing Unit
SKF’s maintenance free Y Bearing Unit has significantly extended equipment uptime for key customer Gibela, a foremost, level 5CE CIBD-rated civil company with more than ten years’ experience in the field.
The environment in which Gibela operates its machines and equipment can be extremely taxing. Charl Engelbrecht, SKF Key Accounts Manager – Agriculture, explains that Gibela’s Vermeer RT650 Trencher was experiencing bearing failures and housing breakages every 150m of trenching. “With project execution often taking place in remote locations, coupled with tight deadlines, the incessant downtime was not only becoming exceedingly frustrating for our customer but also proving to be very expensive in terms of both time and money.”
The SKF team engaged with Gibela owner, Zander Swanepoel, to gain more insight into the challenge. “Having established our customer’s specific needs, we recommended our maintenance free Y Bearing Unit as the best solution to mitigate downtime and costs,” notes Engelbrecht.
The unit consists of an insert bearing that contains a 5-lip Mudblock seal, which is paired with the SKF Cast Iron housing with solid base feet. The Trencher, fitted with the SKF Y Bearing solution, completed 1,2km of uninterrupted trench work enabling Gibela to complete the project ahead of schedule. Moreover, the customer benefited from an immediate saving due to no further external repair costs being incurred.
“While I always knew that SKF was one of the best brands, it was however an eye opener to experience the quality and technology of this premium product first-hand,” states Swanepoel. “The solution has contributed value and savings to my business by enabling us to now sustainably meet our project deadlines.” He adds that SKF met his expectations in terms of carrying good stock levels and having the necessary product knowledge, which they support with a friendly, professional and prompt service.
“The SKF Y Bearing Unit delivers a rugged and reliable solution that is more than a match for the punishing conditions ensuing from the extremely challenging trenching application. The unequivocal success story presented by our value-added bearing solution in stringent environments illustrates that this product group is a market differentiator which has resulted in a satisfied SKF customer,” concludes Engelbrecht.
