Bearing Test Rig Arrives at SRP

SRP studied a range of bearing materials during its design work and carried out early small-scale testing of bearing material samples.  The bearings being used in TRUNNION-LATCH have routinely been used in mooring system fairleads, bridge bearings and in hydro-electric power generation systems.  Although considerable testing has been carried out and similar bearings are already installed in almost identical applications SRP decided to take a scientific approach to understanding the long term bearing performance in its products.

SRP’s bearing test rig enables loads of up to 250Te to be applied to a rotating or oscillating shaft through a bearing material sample.  It enables SRP to test variations in shaft and bearing materials with a range of loads and oscillation angles to optimize long term performance.

Technical manager, Richard Hockley, said, “We were already very confident about the design of the TRUNNION-LATCH product as the materials used had been selected by others for the same purpose and been successfully deployed for a few years in deepwater riser systems.  This study work enables us to confirm the behaviour of our product and then further optimize the current design.”

Preliminary results from the test rig using a 20 degree shaft oscillation are expected before the end of 2008 with simulation of longer-term use being available in early 2009.