A New Renewable Technology for Water Lubricated Bearings and Aging Hydro Power Plants!

Posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2017 and is filed under News

Against a backdrop of rising fuel costs, energy demands and dwindling fuel resources finding reliable, renewable, sustainable energy has become a worldwide priority. With hydro power at the forefront of renewable energy maintaining this aging fleet at a high level of reliability will become more challenging. Considering many hydro’s have been in operation for decades proper preventive maintenance will be critical for peak performance to continue.

With a rich history of reliability Lignum Vitae North America L.L.C. has developed a special patented bearing coating to be applied to a worn water lubricated bearing surface.

The coating is created from distilling the resin from lignum vitae blocks in a proprietary process that produces a pure lubricating coating. The coating when dried has the appearance of varnish. Unlike any other material the resin is 100% all natural, renewable and contains the same lubricant found in the solid blocks that resides in every cell and cannot be washed out.
The coating, when applied periodically during regular planned outage, will replace normal wear to the surface of the bearing. This application in some cases will remove the need to make a full bearing replacement. Currently hundreds of plants use “water lubricated bearings” with lignum vitae estimated at operating approximately 10,000 MW of main guide bearings in North America alone. This coating will allow plants contemplating bearing removal an alternative to full replacement to extend or delay a bearing replacement.
While the entire industry of composite and plastic bearings continue to experiment with the “right formula” mother nature has spent millions of years and endowed lignum vitae with over 2,000 known compounds to produce the perfect combination of hardness and lubricity for the most steel friendly material known.

With simplicity and reliability as core values Lignum Vitae North America L.L.C will continue to innovate and bring to market products to extend the life of hydro’s with the world’s only Natural Renewable Industrial bearing available, Lignum Vitae!

Bob Shortridge, Sr. President