Extend the Life of QD Bushings With These 5 Tips
One of the best ways to reduce costs in any industrial operation is to extend the life of your machinery and its components. QD bushings are a common presence across a facility floor, and the more you understand them, the more use you will get out of them.
1. Make sure they are made of the correct material.
QD bushings can be made of a variety of metals, plastics, and composites. Each material has its ideal use cases. However, there are certain applications for which you should absolutely not use a particular material.
Ensure your QD bushings are rated for the temperatures and pressures of your system. Excessive cold could cause the bushing to become brittle, while operating above the materials’ rated range could lead to bearing deformation. Either will reduce the life of the QD bushing, and could damage the shaft or other adjacent components.
2. Make sure you are not exposing the bushing to more than it can handle.
Exposing a QD bushing to more load – shaft weight or axial thrust – than it can handle can have similarly adverse effects. The bushing itself could deform or begin to separate from its attachment point, again shortening its lifespan and potentially causing the shaft to sag or rotate off its axis.
3. Take the time for proper installation.
One of the advantages of QD bushings is right there in the name: Quick Detachable. They are easy to install or replace, which minimizes downtime. But rushing through the installation process can backfire, leading to longer and maybe more extensive downtime. Follow all the basic precautions and procedures when installing a QD bushing.
One thing to pay particular attention to is tightening the set screws. Use a torque wrench to ensure you tighten the screws within the rated range for that particular bearing. Too loose, and the bearing might break free. Too tight, and you might deform the bearing or the shaft, even before you start up the system and get improper shaft rotation and load dissipation from the bearing being improperly installed.
4. Before you install, inspect.
Another part of installation that does not take much time up front but ensures a long lifespan for the bearing is the pre-installation inspection of the bearing and shaft. Verify that both surfaces are free of dust, grit, grease, scratches, or pits. Smooth and clean surfaces reduce friction, heat, loss of efficiency, and wear.
5. Think beyond your bushings.
Do not get tunnel vision on your QD bushings when thinking about how to extend their lifespan. They are part of a much larger system, and the other components can damage them even if you do everything right when it comes to the bearing itself.
Verify the alignment of the shaft within the bearing and within the system as a whole. The bearing is there to support the shaft, in more ways than one. If the shaft is doing something adverse because of some upstream or downstream failure, the QD bushing will be one more casualty.
When you are ready for replacements, look no further than MDS. Browse our wide selection of bushings (which also includes H, QT, and taper-lock) or request information today.
