SealMaster PN Gold Food and Beverage Bearings
Food and beverage manufacturing has a particular challenge other industries don't face. To keep food safe from bacteria growth, equipment needs regular cleaning. Washdown procedures, involving high-pressure spray and chemical cleaning agents can damage equipment.
Manufacturers often worry about corrosion of housing and bearing materials. Another concern is the ingression of the moisture into the bearings themselves.
Bearings Made to Resist Corrosion
SealMaster PN Gold series ball bearings meet the challenging demands of food and beverage applications. The PN Gold series offers several different housing materials, including:
- 316 passivated stainless castings;
- high-strength composite material; and
- fluoropolymer-coated cast iron material.
All three of these materials provide excellent protection against corrosion.
But corrosion-resistant housings are only the first step in corrosion resistance. SealMaster PN Gold bearings feature a unique bearing insert. A high phosphorous, electroless nickel-plated 52100 steel material makes up the inner and outer rings. This plating process provides exceptional corrosion resistance. The insert also uses rolling element balls that are made of 440C stainless steel.
The unique land riding, corrosion resistant composite retainer provides superior pocket clearance. This allows for better lubrication around the rolling elements.
Besides corrosion-resistance, the insert is also equipped with the HPS sealing system. This is a triple lip seal that offers multi-directional sealing. This sealing minimizes contamination ingression and retained lubrication. A two-piece stainless-steel shell and flingers surround the lip seal. All this adds to the seal effectiveness while providing a smooth surface for the seal lips to ride.
Bearings That Meet IP69K Specifications
Thanks to these design features, SealMaster PN Gold bearings meet IP69K specifications. IP69K is one of the most stringent ingression protection requirements. Meeting IP69K ensures the bearing seals will provide the highest level of protection against the effects of repeated high pressure washdowns and other contaminates that may ingress into the bearing. This translates into longer grease and bearing life. For added protection, the bearings are available with optional auxiliary caps in both open and closed configurations.
Options for Your Application
PN Gold bearing inserts are also available with two different shaft locking devices:
- The first is a standard setscrew locking style. This style utilizes two 303 stainless steel setscrews threaded directly into the inner race and are spaced at 120 degrees apart. This provides highest shaft holding power while minimizing inner race roundness distortion.
- The second uses a Skwezloc® concentric clamp collar design with a fluoropolymer coating and an Endurion coated TORX head cap screw. The clamp lock design provides near-perfect concentricity of the shaft to the bearing bore. At the same time, it reduces shaft fretting corrosion. Since the collar clamps the inner race to the shaft, there is no set screw that engages the shaft surface. This eliminates the shaft damage that occurs with typical set screw mounting. This facilitates easier bearing removal when required.
All SealMaster PN Gold bearings feature USDA H1 approved SealMaster GoldPlex-FG lubricant. They are also available in shaft sizes ranging from 3/4" to 2-7/16" as well as 20mm to 60mm sizes. Housing styles include pillow block, flange, hanger, take up and ER styles.
If you're ready for SealMaster PN Gold Food and Beverage bearings, browse our catalog to find a bearing for you.