Combined Roller Bearings - CASE STUDY

We have supplied our combined roller bearings with mating steel channel to Pacific Tek, a company in California in the United States of America. Pacific Tek manufacture machinery mounted on vehicles for the maintenance and operation of underground water valves that are typically found at some depth below street level, under small access covers.

One piece of machinery is called a ‘valve operator’ which consists of a high torque hydraulic motor fitted to one end of a swing arm mounted on the back of a pickup truck. The motor can be easily positioned over a manhole and used to safely open and close a valve found a few feet below the road.

Pacific Tek usually mount their valve operator either across the front or the back of a truck. In order to be able to fit this machine lengthways within a truck bed they decided to design a version that could roll in and out of the vehicle.

The base of the 13 foot long swing arm would need to be mounted onto a carriage that could slide a distance of 8 feet and adequately resist the loads generated by the weight of the arm and the motor and also the high torque loads (up to 1085 Newton meters) generated by the operation of the machine.

Pacific Tek correctly identified that our combined roller bearings and mating steel profile channel could provide a simple but heavy duty linear sliding system capable of meeting their specifications. Euro-Bearings helped to select the correct size of steel profile and bearings based upon information provided by Pacific Tek. We shipped our products directly to Pacific Tek in California

A Valve Operator by Pacific Tek in action.

The Valve Operator fitted across the rear of a truck.

The Solution:

Pacific Tek have fabricated a carriage fitted with two pairs of combined roller bearings running within a pair of steel channels which are bolted to the bed of the truck. The base of the swing arm’s pivot is bolted to the top of this carriage. The valve operator can now slide to the back of the truck before being extended out for operation. Pacific Tek have chosen to powder coat our steel channels to protect them against corrosion as this machine will spend most of its life outdoors.

A Valve Operator installed lengthways.

The base of the swing arm slides out.

Euro-Bearings steel channels are bolted to the truck.

Four combined roller bearings run within the channel.