Wheeler Industries, Inc. has designed and built a high speed, high load journal bearing test rig that can operate a journal bearing at its actual installed application conditions. This capability enables Wheeler to validate new designs at actual operating conditions.

The test rig has been used to test the performance characteristics of various lubricants including mineral and synthetic.

Other features that have been tested include:

• fixed and floating shaft seal designs
• flow rates and lubricants
• various configurations of tilting pad arc lengths, L/D ratios and preloads
• load vs speed vs lubricant.

Smaller L/D ratio designs have been shown to be acceptable in terms of load capacity and thermal performance.

The test rig gives Wheeler the ability to compare its bearing design computer codes with the actual test results. In general, Wheeler has found about a 5% or less correlation with the predicted results.

To learn more about Wheeler Industries, Inc. bearing test capabilities contact us