Biggest-Ass Bearing?

[Doug Gray]

I got it boss!

 

[Ischgl99]

That’s not even close to being the largest precision bearing. The largest ones are made in sections that bolt together so they can be transported. Rothe Erde makes the slewing ring bearings used in things like draglines, I believe they make up to 5 meter OD, but that could be larger now. FAG had a capacity up to I think 3 meters when I worked for them, but I saw a story about a bearing for a wind turbine that was larger then that, so they may have larger equipment now.

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Edit: I didn’t read to the end of the link, they make up to 9.6 meter diameter.

 

[pontiac428]

I bet packing that bearing makes you feel like a large animal veterinarian...

They mothballed the Glomar Explorer in the Carquinez Straits when I was a kid, so I spent plenty of time pondering the mysteries of that ship and it's mission. Freaking amazing undertaking.

 

[Ischgl99]

A little more info, the bearing in the OP is a triple ring bearing. Smaller versions are used in paper making machines. This link shows what these bearings look like https://www.schaeffler.com/remoteme...chaeffler_2/tpi/downloads_8/tpi_169_de_en.pdf

I've never seen a triple ring bearing that large, I was curious what kind of equipment uses them since I have only seen them in paper machines, and came across a link for the ship that was used in the recovery operation of the submarine. The bearing arrangement starts at image 2-18 of the document in the following link. It looks like they used this bearing so you had the deflection tolerance of a spherical roller bearings and axial displacement ability of a cylindrical roller bearing. Very cool application!

The Glomar Explorer

 

[Jake M]

Well - it might not be. There are some pretty huge bearings in rail tunnel excavators, but it might be one of the biggest full precision bearings ever made. It is one of a set of 4 used in the gimbal mounted in the middle of the "mining exploration" ship used to recover the Soviet submarine K-129, around 1974.

View attachment 417301

Howard Hughes built that boat with a couple of 608's. This is what happens when the government gets involved.



OK, maybe that wasn't quite how it went, but I like it.

 

[Winegrower]

How about the spindle bearings on the lathes used for these things?

And the size of the chuck keys!

 

[7milesup]

I would recommend this book, Blind Man's Bluff by Sherry Sontag. It is a great story about Cold War espionage utilizing submarines and the cat-and-mouse "games" the U.S. and Russia engaged in.

 

[Braeden P]

It sad to hear that the “mining operation” did go to plan.

 

[great white]

What’s an @ss bearing?

 

[Ulma Doctor]