Slewing bearings

Slewing bearings comprise an inner ring and an outer ring, one of which usually incorporates a gear. Together with attachment holes in both rings, they enable an optimized power transmission with a simple and quick connection between adjacent machine components. The bearing raceways, in conjunction with the rolling elements and cages or spacers, are designed to accommodate loads acting singly or in combination, and in any direction.

SKF manufactures standard and customized slewing bearings in various designs, with outside diameters from 0,1 to 18 m to meet the demands of particular applications.

For additional information about SKF Kaydon slewing bearings, refer to Kaydon bearings.

Product types

Slewing bearing with four-point contact ball bearing

Optimal economy and capacity for given dimensions or when replacing existing multi-bearing arrangements.

Slewing bearing with wire race bearing

60% lighter compared to same-sized all-steel bearings

Slewing bearing with eight-point contact ball bearing

80% increase in capacity compared to a same-sized single row four-point contact ball bearings

Customized slewing bearing

SKF has extensive experience in designing and manufacturing customized or special slewing bearings, for example, slewing bearing with combined roller/ball bearing (as shown), with segmented bearing or with inserted raceways bearing.

Slewing bearing with crossed cylindrical roller bearing

High stiffness and constant resistance to rotation

Slewing bearing with triple row roller bearing

Provide highest capacity for a given diameter

Features and benefits

Depending on their design, slewing bearings have the following features:

High load-carrying capacity
High stiffness for rigid bearing application
Low friction
Long service life
Surface protection and corrosion resistance
Integration of additional features, including:
Driving mechanism
Control devices
Lubrication systems
Monitoring systems
Sealing cassettes

More information

Selecting the appropriate slewing bearing can be a challenge, particularly if there are stringent technical, reliability or economic demands. In these cases, for example, SKF application engineering service can provide advanced calculations and simulations utilizing state-of-the-art analyse methods to optimize and validate the best design to meet the customer requirements.

SKF also offers worldwide a wide range of added value services for slewing bearings, including remanufacturing. A slewing bearing with only 30% left of its calculated service life can be well worth remanufacturing. SKF’s standardized remanufacturing processes can extend significantly the service life of critical equipment.

All of these combine to improve rotating equipment performance and reduce total cost of ownership.

Applications

SKF offers high-performance slewing bearings for a wide range of applications, including:

Wind turbines
Tunnel boring machines
Excavators
Forestry vehicles
Rail vehicles
Dockside and deck cranes
Mobile cranes
Water treatment equipment
Bottle filling systems
Metals
Material handling
Marine pods
Offshore buoys
Stacker reclaimers
Surveillance systems (e.g. radars, cameras)
Medical equipment
Tidal turbines

In focus

SKF High Endurance Slewing Bearings can help to raise turbine performance by controlling the movement of your blades and nacelle

Wind turbines must cope with many extremes, including rough weather and enormous loads. Their remote location, and the need to generate more power, are two factors that make their design even more challenging. The SKF High Endurance Slewing Bearing was developed to meet these challenges.

Increase productivity and improve operator comfort

With the tough, heavy-duty conditions of the mining industry, excavators, bucket wheel excavators and stackers / reclaimers are up against a real challenge. Slewing bearing solutions are vital for the performance and reliability of these applications.