Solutions for the food and beverage industry

The food and bev­er­age sec­tor has been a long-held area of focus for NSK. Spe­cif­ic to this indus­try, NSK rolling bear­ings fea­ture high­ly rel­e­vant design attrib­ut­es such as rust­proof mate­ri­als, sealed con­struc­tion and life­long lubri­cants that are com­pat­i­ble with foodstuffs.

Con­tin­u­ous, high-speed oper­a­tion and the most strin­gent of hygiene stan­dards and oper­at­ing con­di­tions call for reli­able, robust bear­ings that facil­i­tate cost-effec­tive pro­duc­tion. Out­stand­ing per­for­mance and main­te­nance-free oper­a­tion must be assured, despite hav­ing to with­stand high tem­per­a­tures, water and chem­i­cals. The bear­ings must also pre­vent any con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of food­stuffs safe­ly and reliably.

Bear­ing appli­ca­tions for food pro­duc­tion include raw mate­r­i­al, pri­ma­ry (cut­ting and mix­ing), sec­ondary (mould­ing), con­vey­ing, inspec­tion, heat­ing and pack­ag­ing process­es, while bev­er­age appli­ca­tions focus on bot­tle mould­ing, fill­ing, seal­ing, inspec­tion and packing.

To help sim­pli­fy the bear­ing choice in such process­es, NSK has renewed its cat­a­logue enti­tled ‘Solu­tions for the Food and Bev­er­age Indus­tries’. This com­pre­hen­sive pub­li­ca­tion fea­tures an overview of the sec­tor and high­lights the indi­vid­ual needs of food and bev­er­age pro­cess­ing lines. Core prod­ucts are also presented.

One of the prin­ci­pal prod­ucts high­light­ed is NSK’s Sil­ver-Lube mount­ed unit series. Sil­ver-Lube units com­prise high-grade stain­less steel bear­ing rings, cage and balls, with seal core and grub screws, grease nip­ple, and bolt-hole lin­ers. Fur­ther design fea­tures include nitrile rub­ber seals and stain­less steel flingers, along with a ther­mo­plas­tic poly­ester resin hous­ing. The bear­ings are fac­to­ry filled with a wide tem­per­a­ture USDA H1 food-grade grease.

Also fea­tured is the Life-Lube series of mount­ed units, which com­bine the cor­ro­sion resis­tance of a Sil­ver-Lube hous­ing with the seal­ing and lubri­cat­ing attrib­ut­es of Mold­ed-Oil bear­ings. Of par­tic­u­lar impor­tance, Life-Lube bear­ings are suit­able for wet envi­ron­ments, includ­ing those that use process flu­ids and/or chemicals.

NSK’s Mold­ed-Oil bear­ings are anoth­er promi­nent prod­uct in the new cat­a­logue. Deployed exten­sive­ly in food and bev­er­age plants, Mold­ed-Oil bear­ings not only pre­vent the ingress of con­t­a­m­i­nants such as water and par­tic­u­lates, but no lubri­cant can escape the bear­ing and enter oth­er parts of the machine, where it could con­ceiv­ably con­tact food. These bear­ings are equipped with a pro­pri­etary oil-impreg­nat­ed mate­r­i­al that con­sists of lubri­cat­ing oil and a poly­olefin resin with an affin­i­ty for oil. The car­ri­er mate­r­i­al releas­es the lubri­cant con­tin­u­ous­ly over a long peri­od, ensur­ing the oper­at­ing envi­ron­ment is kept clean as no grease is released and no oil refill­ing is needed.

A fur­ther spe­cial cat­a­logue sec­tion focus­es on greas­es for food-pro­cess­ing machin­ery, reveal­ing that the com­pa­ny has devel­oped the world’s first 100% food-derived grease lubri­cant. H3G grease is NSF-cer­ti­fied under cat­e­go­ry H3, offer­ing low torque, excel­lent water resis­tance and lit­tle leak­age in envi­ron­ments where the machine is exposed to water. The grease can be deployed in appli­ca­tions up to 90°C, with H1R grease extend­ing to 120°C and H1B to 200°C. Both H1R grease and H1B grease are cer­ti­fied accord­ing to Mus­lim halal and Jew­ish kosher standards.