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Introduction to the SKF General Catalogue

Summary
A first look at the SKF General Catalogue can be daunting – over 1,100 pages, crammed full of
technical data, equations and table after table of product data. How can you make sense of this huge
amount of material? This is the purpose of these articles: A practical guide to using the SKF General
Catalogue from beginning to end.

SKF @ptitude Exchange GC6000-0-1

5271 Viewridge Court Joe Conyers
San Diego, CA 92123 4 Pages
United States Published Sept, 2009
tel. +1 858 496 3400
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Internet: http://www.aptitudexchange.com

Introduction to the SKF General Catalogue © 2012 SKF Group

Introduction
Welcome to the first in a series of articles
designed to help you understand and use the
SKF General Catalogue. The SKF General
Catalogue is a comprehensive guide to selecting
and applying rolling element bearings in just
about any machine that transmits power. It can
not only help you pick the right bearing for your
application, it can help you optimize your
machine design for maximum service life.
A first look at the SKF General Catalogue can be
daunting – over 1,100 pages, crammed full of
technical data, equations and table after table
of product data. How can you make sense of
this huge amount of material?
Purpose of these articles
This is the purpose of these articles: A practical
guide to using the SKF General Catalogue from
beginning to end. You’ll learn how to answer
real life questions, for example:
• What does a bearing do?
• How do bearings work?
• Is this the right bearing for my application?
• How do I choose a bearing for a new
machine?
• What life can I expect from the bearings in
this machine?
• Is there any way to get more life from my
bearings?
• What’s going to happen to the bearings if I
increase speed?
• What lubricant should I use? How much?
How often?
We will make reference to the On-line version
of the SKF General Catalogue, but the primary
purpose of these guides will be to illuminate
Introduction to the SKF General Catalogue © 2012 SKF Group
and illustrate the usage of the printed version
of the SKF General Catalogue.
So, how can you get one of these extraordinary
books? The first point of contact would be your
Authorized SKF distributor – they may have a
copy on hand or they can order one for you.
Alternatively, you can contact SKF directly: go
online to www.skf.com, and select “Contact
SKF.” If you don’t like to wait, the entire text of
the General Catalogue is available online within
the SKF Interactive Engineering Catalogue.
Printed and on-line versions
One of the best features of the SKF General
Catalogue is it’s availability in both printed and
online forms. Although it costs a lot to make the
printed version, many users of the SKF General
Catalogue prefer the printed version to the
online style – you may simply like to leaf
through the SKF General Catalogue, browsing
pages to see what you can learn and gaining
new understanding with every turn of the page.
You can also take the hard copy to a quiet
place, away from the office, to read at your
leisure and, at your own pace.
The online version, known as the SKF
Interactive Engineering Catalogue (or SKF IEC,)
allows for continual updating, which ensures a
topical currency unmatched by any printed
media. The SKF Interactive Engineering
Catalogue also contains many interactive tools,
such as product table selectors, calculators, text
search, and so forth.
You may find the SKF Interactive Engineering
Catalogue a bit overwhelming at first. Learn
how to use the navigation and search features
to reduce the chance of overlooking some key
point or nuance that might be important when
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selecting or applying bearings. If you are a
newer user of either the SKF Interactive
Engineering Catalogue or the printed SKF
General Catalogue, it’s a great idea to call your
local SKF Applications Engineering office for
questions and clarifications. You may have
heard “there really is no substitute for
experience.” You can find help through your
local SKF Applications Engineering resources
available worldwide. The easiest way to contact
SKF is to look online at www.skf.com. There
you will find a “Contact SKF” button that will
lead you to local country contacts for help with
the Catalogues, both printed and online.
Exploring the printed version
Now that you have a copy of the SKF General
Catalogue, look it over! As soon as you open the
front cover, you’ll find a page with thumb tabs
that provide easy access to a wide range of SKF
products, such as Deep Groove Ball Bearings.
Holding your thumb over the appropriate
tabbed section, you’ll open right to the section
on this bearing type. For now, let’s keep going.
After a few pages of introduction, you’ll skip
over to the Contents page, where you’ll find
that the SKF General Catalogue organized into
three major sections:
1. Principles of bearing selection and
application
2. Product data
3. Index
Seems simple enough, right? But remember:
over 100 years of SKF Knowledge Engineering
is crammed into this book! As you skim over the
rest of the SKF General Catalogue, you’ll no
doubt get interested in some sections and want
to read more. Good for you! Learning doesn’t
Introduction to the SKF General Catalogue © 2012 SKF Group
take place overnight, and absorbing all the
principles of the SKF General Catalogue will
take time. In addition to being a valuable
reference, the SKF General Catalogue contains
guides and rules for applying bearings. A word
to the wise: no one becomes a bearing
applications engineer overnight. If you’re
working on a mission critical application, it’s
good to cross-check your work with the
experts. Use the SKF Applications Engineering
Service to verify that you’re on the right track
before making final choices, or changes, to
machines. You’ll get great advice that can
improve machine reliability, maintainability, and
service life.
Some of the SKF General Catalogue sections
are strictly informational, for example:
• What materials are used to make bearings?
• What are the standard sizes for bearings?
• What is the designation for a particular
bearing?
Other parts of the SKF General Catalogue are
designed to show you how to do something.
These include:
• How to select the right bearing.
• How to compute bearing life.
• How to determine the lubrication quantity
for a bearing.
The SKF General Catalogue is a fantastic
resource for making your machines run better,
work harder, and last longer. You now have a
general idea of how the SKF General Catalogue
is laid out. Take some time to browse the SKF
General Catalogue before you read the next
article – you’ll get a good feel for what’s inside,
and what is yet to come as you complete these
articles. Ultimately, you’ll get a better
understanding of how bearings work in
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machines. This fundamental understanding will
help you make better choices in design,
maintenance and operations of your machinery.
Whatever goal you have in mind, the SKF
General Catalogue can help your machine do
more work, more reliably, at a lower total cost.
Welcome to the World of SKF Knowledge
Engineering.
So what’s next? As you read the rest of these
articles, you’ll examine each part of the SKF
General Catalogue in detail. There will be
discussions of the meaning behind the
information: what fundamental concepts can be
learned? There will also be practical examples,
showing you how to best use the wealth of
information between the covers.
Our next series of articles will focus on the
“Principles of bearing selection and application”
section of the catalogue:
• An overview of the Principles of bearing
selection and application
• Bearing Types
• Selection of Bearing Type
• Selection of Bearing Size (twelve articles)
• Speeds and Vibration
• Bearing Data (three articles)
• Application of Bearings (five articles)
• Lubrication (three articles)
• Mounting
• Dismounting
• Bearing Storage, Inspection and Cleaning
In future, we’re planning another series of
articles on individual bearing types and their
application. Stay tuned!
Introduction to the SKF General Catalogue © 2012 SKF Group
About the author
Joe Conyers is a Senior Consulting Engineer,
Training and Development for the SKF
Reliability Maintenance Institute. He has taught
bearing maintenance, installation, technology
and analysis practices to thousands of
maintenance personnel throughout North
America for the last eight years.
His prior ten years experience as a Field Sales
Representative for the SKF Service Division has
provided him with broad exposure to nearly
every type of industrial end-user and
application, including mineral extractors, food
processors, petrochemical producers, and pulp
and paper makers.
He has been published in print with Plant
Engineering Magazine and online at
http://www.aptitudexchange.com/. Joe holds a
BS in Engineering from the United States Naval
Academy and has served in the U.S. Navy as an
Instructor Pilot and Mission Commander in the
P-3B/C Aircraft.
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