Solutions for the Agriculture Mechanics

Anyone who has ever worked on equipment knows bearings can be a lot of work. First off, there are a lot of them. And on agricultural equipment, most bearings must be lubricated periodically to prevent them from wearing or seizing. But over the years, with a lot of sweat and engineering, bearings have advanced to where most of the me, you don't even know they're there.

The purpose of bearings is to support rotang machinery, shas and components. Examples include the wheels on tractors, rolls on hay balers, disks on llage equipment and gears in a transmission.

On farm machinery, bearings can be smaller than a dime or as large as a dinner plate, and they cost anywhere from a dollar to hundreds of dollars. Bearings come in at least six different types, but most common on farm equipment are rolling element bearings and plain bearings, or bushings.

BMG provides a comprehensive soluons service to all key players in the agricultural sector, including the farmer, local manufacturers of equipment and implements, as well as agricultural re-sellers. Included in BMG's agricultural porolio is a wide range of wear parts, including heavy duty bearings,which have been specially designed, upgraded and advanced for extended service life in tough African condions.

Also in the agricultural porolio are seals, adhesives and gaskets, harvester and planter chains, as well as gearboxes and electric motors. The range also encompasses PTO shas and accessories, e rod cylinders, drive belts and pulleys, couplings, fasteners and hand and power tools.

“BMG's extensive range of engineering components has been carefully selected for farmers by the company's team of agricultural experts, to be able to cope efficiently in harsh African condions,” says Carlo Beukes, general manager, power transmission, BMG. “The company takes pride in supplying quality branded products that are compable with original equipment. All components ensure opmum performance - even in tough operang condions and also offer extended service life.

“The company's Boer Slim/Smart Farming concept, which was launched by BMG to assist farmers cope with constantly changing trends in the agricultural sector, has been well received.

“Through the Boer Slim/Smart Farming iniave, BMG's team of agricultural experts offers farming sustainability soluons throughout Africa that focus on effecve food producon, the correct use of suitable equipment for the specific task and the efficient applicaon of advanced technologies.

“We work closely with farmers to demonstrate that the investment in the latest equipment is necessary to maximise producvity and does translate into tangible operaonal efficiencies. “BMG knows the value of using high quality replacement parts and we encourage farmers to avoid installing inferior components.

The company is commied to supplying quality guaranteed products that can replace wornout OEM or old mechanical parts at a lower price than the original equipment product, with no compromise on quality For example, BMG offers a high quality cornpicker chain at a lower price than the OEM part. All products supplied by BMG conform to all relevant internaonal quality assurance and specificaon cerficaons.

“There is a huge difference between supplying a cheap product below market price and the supply of a good quality product at a compeve, affordable price. Due to the inherent quality aspects of all BMG products, it is vital to know that BMG supplies quality branded products at an

Acceptable Price

BMG's agricultural components, which conform to relevant quality assurance and specificaon cerficaons, are engineered to improve producvity, operate efficiently for extended periods in harsh local condions and reduce costs in the long term. As an example, BTC seed coulter discs are manufactured from 6 mm tough Boron steel and are hardened between 55 and 58 hrc.

New to the agri range is the complete 8 series PTO drive sha product line, designed and manufactured by La Magdalena in Italy, to meet the requirements in technical advancements in agriculture demand. This is an OEM quality product and caters for heavy duty applicaons.

BMG's comprehensive agricultural catalogue is a praccal guide for farmers which focuses on all wear parts and components available from the company's naonal branch network. There are illustraons and easy-to follow charts to assist farmers in the idenficaon and selecon of the appropriate component for every applicaon.

Immediate availability of a comprehensive range of quality branded products and a technical support and total soluons offering, service sets the company apart in the agricultural community

2. Kverneland Group

Due to the tough operang condions experienced by machinery used in agricultural applicaons, the prospects of aaining a long service life when using standard rolling bearings are extremely limited.

Acutely aware of this fact, leading manufacturers of quality agricultural machines, such as the Kverneland Group, rely on applicaon-specific bearings from NSK. The Soester plain to the east of Dortmund, Germany, is one of the most ferle regions in Europe, making it the ideal locaon for the seeding technology competence centre and headquarters of Kverneland's Soil Processing Division.

In Soest, the company's seeding and drilling machines are developed and manufactured in large quanes in order to meet high demand across Europe, as well as increasing uptake from customers in the USA and Asia. During seedbed preparaon, the machine's components are subjected to extremely high stresses, parcularly the disc harrow segment of the so-called U-drill. The disc harrow is used to loosen and break up the soil before the following sowing coulters dig the furrows ready to receive the seeds. The disc-shaped tools of the harrow are required to keep turning in all types of ground and at different soil depths. As a result of this low fricon characteriscs are highly important. The tools drive forward with working speeds of up to 18 km/h over uneven ground and must withstand any impact from stones. As the tools sit at an angle to the direcon of moon, the bearings are exposed to high axial forces, not to menon environmental hazards such as dust, moisture, dirt and corrosive ferliser

“The very diverse stress paerns that affect the bearings cannot be accurately predicted, which means that bearings for agricultural machinery are always designed to be much larger than needed,” says Volker Schanzenbach, R&D manager of Kverneland Group Soest GmbH. “Instead of sizing, the main challenge relates to the seal that protects the bearings from dust and moisture.”

This challenge is exaggerated by recent climate change that has led to much drier soil and, consequently, more dust. Furthermore, the efficiency demands of modern farming means that fuel consumpon, working speed, maintenance costs and machine availability take ever-higher priority. Clearly, the performance of the bearings has never been more important.

The Kverneland machines feature eight tools for each metre of working width. This means that they can be equipped with up to 48 highly stressed rolling bearings. To ensure the bearings are up to the job, the company today uses a robust and durable NSK soluon, known as the Agri-Disc Hub. Developed especially for use in soil culvaon and seeding machines, the NSK hubs comprise of a double row of angular contact ball bearings (featuring a 40° contact angle) with a separate inner ring that is designed to withstand high axial and lt www.africaagricultureinsight.com loads. Supplying an added-value soluon, NSK fits the bearings into housings ready to be installed, thus simplifying assembly for Kverneland.

To overcome the challenge of sealing the bearing, NSK added a stac seal with three sealing lips to the disc side (opposite the bearing housing) and a dynamic seal with two sealing lips between the bearing unit and the disc carrier. A large pressure plate provides further protecon for the bearing and also serves to generate the desired pretensioning.

NSK's special Agri-Disc Hubs feature a double row of angular contact ball bearings and innovave sealing mechanisms and is capable of supporng very high axial and radial loads. According to Kverneland, this innovave sealing system has proved to be highly effecve, even with heavy dust, moisture and abrasive or corrosive elements in the soil such as sand and chemical ferlisers. Water projecon tests have shown that even when subjected to high pressure cleaning, there is no reducon in bearing durability or longevity

The bearing is filled with special performance grease which has a high pressure absorpon capacity designed to last throughout the service life of the bearing. Despite heavy use, this feature makes any subsequent lubricaon unnecessary saving me and grease whilst preserving the environment.

Aer the posive experience provided by adopng the Agri Disc Hubs, engineers at Kverneland (which was taken over by Kubota in 2012) and NSK made a study of other machines with the goal of opmising bearing locaons and increasing longevity. This work led to improved bearing points on Kverneland's disc harrows, where double row angular contact ball bearings without a flange (but with a radial sha seal on one side) are now used. At other bearing points, Kverneland seeding machines use single row ball bearings (four point bearings with a widened inner ring and a flinger seal on one side). Depending on the applicaon, various seal shapes and materials are deployed.

NSK has also developed custom rolling bearings for the seed coulters of the Kverneland single seed drilling machines with underfoot ferlisaon (an extremely abrasive applicaon), as well as for other soil-working machines such as short disc harrows.

According to Kverneland, this innovave sealing system has proved to be highly effecve, even with heavy dust, moisture and abrasive or corrosive elements in the soil such as sand and chemical ferlisers. Water projecon tests have shown that even when subjected to high pressure cleaning, there is no reducon in bearing durability or longevity.

The bearing is filled with special performance grease which has a high pressure absorpon capacity designed to last throughout the service life of the bearing. Despite heavy use, this feature makes any subsequent lubricaon unnecessary saving me and grease whilst preserving the environment.

Aer the posive experience provided by adopng the Agri Disc Hubs, engineers at Kverneland (which was taken over by Kubota in 2012) and NSK made a study of other machines with the goal of opmising bearing locaons and increasing longevity. This work led to improved bearing points on Kverneland's disc harrows, where double row angular contact ball bearings without a flange (but with a radial sha seal on one side) are now used. At other bearing points, Kverneland seeding machines use single row ball bearings (four point bearings with a widened inner ring and a flinger seal on one side). Depending on the applicaon, various seal shapes and materials are deployed.

NSK has also developed custom rolling bearings for the seed coulters of the Kverneland single seed drilling machines with underfoot ferlisaon (an extremely abrasive applicaon), as well as for other soil-working machines such as short disc harrows.

3. NSK Agri Disc Hub units fied to disc harrows

Galucho, the largest agricultural machinery manufacturer in Portugal and Spain, is now fing Agri Disc Hub units from NSK to the company's disc harrows. The move comes aer two years of working together and tesng the product on 700 hectares of land near Seville, a successful process that means NSK is now fully approved to assemble its Agri Disc Hub units on the disc harrows manufactured by Galucho machinery

NSK is now approved to assemble its Agri Disc Hub units on Galucho's GDM series disc harrows The latest disc harrow technology requires reliable bearing soluons to enhance quality, lower costs and protect the environment. As a consequence of the tough condions faced by machinery used on farms, where working on all kinds of hard, dry and abrasive terrain leads to constant exposure to dirt, damp, vibraon and impact, the potenal for disc harrow bearings to deliver a long working life are limited. However, NSK's Agri Disc Hub is designed purposely for agricultural applicaons.

The Agri Disc Hub is an extremely robust unit for disc harrows that meets agriculture's requirements for greater producvity, reduced costs and environmental protecon. The units comprise double-row angular contact ball bearings that are capable of supporng very high axial and radial loads. Any sudden impact caused by stones in the earth, for example, create high axial loads as a result of the angle at which the lling equipment is posioned in relaon to the direcon of movement. Furthermore, abrasive material like dust, and corrosion caused by water and ferliser, are known to cause problems for many convenonal bearing soluons.

NSK's Agri Disc Hub is a robust unit for disc harrows that meets requirements for greater producvity, reduced costs and environmental protecon

In contrast, Agri Disc Hubs extend the equipment's working life without requiring maintenance (thus saving me), even during the severe mechanical stresses caused by agricultural use. This is thanks to a number of notable features, such as a highly efficient, opmised sealing system that stops abrasive dust and humidity from geng inside the bearings, even if the machinery comes into contact with manure or high-pressure water jets (during cleaning). It is also not possible for grease to drip on to the ground, as Agri Disc Hub bearings do not require addional lubricaon, thus protecng the environment.