Quantum Leap in Wheel Bearing Technology(Pic)



SKF GmbH took a quantum leap in wheel bearing technology when the 1,000,000th truck hub unit was delivered MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG,in May 2007. This was also an opportunity to offer the truck manufacturer a token of thanks for many years of trusting and extremely positive business relations. To mark the occasion, Bernd Stephan, Director of SKF Business Unit Trucks, Mathias Bitsch, Truck Sales Germany, and Jürgen Eyrich, Business Engineer responsible for MAN, presented a gold-plated version of the one-millionth hub unit to Dr.-Ing. Karl-Viktor Schaller, Board Member Technology and Purchasing of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG, at the MAN headquarters in Munich.

MAN Nutzfahrzeuge was the first customer in Germany to switch over to the then newly developed SKF truck hub units. Since July 1998, the company has fitted the front axles of large trucks exclusively with these units and, due to good results, it decided to use the new system for the front axles for loads from 3.4 to 6 tonnes a couple of years later. Today SKF is the sole supplier of MAN front axles.

"The one millionth SKF truck hub unit represents a success story that both companies can be proud of," Bernd Stephan emphasised when presenting the golden bearing. "After all, one million THUs are equivalent to half a million MAN trucks.

For us as a supplier, the high delivery volume provides evidence of our employees' expertise and experience. Thanks to the high defect-free quality of our products and the performance of the developers, designers and customer engineers in Schweinfurt as well as of the production experts in Lüchow near Wolfsburg, the business relations between our two companies are forward-looking and based on fair partnership."

In reply, Dr. Karl-Viktor Schaller praised the quality, performance capacity and delivery service. "SKF is justified in claiming that this is a quantum leap in wheel bearing technology - not only as far as the number of truck hub units delivered to MAN is concerned. In the meantime, tens of thousands of these bearings have clocked up one million kilometres and more in our vehicles. And they're still running as reliably as they were on day they were fitted."

This service life and reliability do not come about without good reason: SKF truck hub units are customized, ready-to-fit wheel bearing units that are manufactured to extremely narrow tolerances and are delivered pre-adjusted and thus ready-to-fit. They incorporate up to 12 conventional components: wheel bearing, hub, attachments, seals and lubricant, spacer washers, spigots for wheel and brake disc, the brake disc itself or the brake drum, ABS pulse sensor rings and further sensors and functions.

Unlike conventional wheel bearings with separate bearings, seals and hubs, which have to come in for servicing approx. every 300,000 kilometres, these truck hub units are pre-adjusted, sealed and greased for life. Therefore they are outstanding for low maintenance requirements while offering long service life.

These aspects affect both the overall costs - keyword: Total Cost of Ownership -, and, what is much more important, they influence the service life. Some 80 percent of all conventional wheel bearing failures result from errors in mounting, maintenance and clearance adjustment. A further 15 percent are attributable to inefficient seals or seal damage during mounting and maintenance. In other words, 95 percent of all potential failure causes in conventional wheel bearings are ruled out right from the start when using SKF truck hub units.

But there's still more to add to the list of positives: Compared to conventional bearings, truck hub units boast smaller dimensions so that the abutting components are also smaller. This enables weight savings in the hub and axle to be achieved - a contribution to reduced fuel and carbon dioxide emissions as well as higher vehicle payloads. In the final analysis, the superior service life of SKF truck hub units results from a combination of various individual measures, all of which work to reinforce each other. These include special materials and defined preload as well as higher axle stiffness. Additionally, the special bearing raceway profile ensures clearly improved friction behaviour and enhanced running accuracy. Production under optimal conditions with special lubricants and seals does the rest and proves the reliability of the truck hub unit in field operation.

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