Emerging Dominant Bearing Failure Mode as Temperatures Escalate in the Dryer Section, 2021 TAPPICon Live (21TAPL)

In papermaking machines, the ability to operate at higher temperatures during machine start-up and steady-state conditions is directly linked to increased productivity. Historically, the key component limiting fast start-up times or higher operating temperatures are the bearings, particularly the bearings in the dryer section, which is also the longest section on a paper machine. Many technological and material advancements have been implemented over the last 30 years that have significantly improved bearing performance. Examples include case and bainitic hardened bearings to better accommodate higher temperatures and prevent catastrophic failures that were common when using martensitic hardened bearings. Consequently, the trend in the paper industry is to increase temperatures further, especially during start-up, which is introducing a new set of challenges resulting in subsurface white etching cracks (WEC). WEC is part of an accelerated fatigue failure mode that has started to replace the straight-line inner ring fracture as one of the predominant bearing failure modes. In some recorded cases, the actual bearing life was dramatically diminished to one-fifth of the design bearing life, causing a significant impact on machine reliability resulting in costly machine downtime. In this paper, the WEC failure mode is examined with emphasis on drying cylinder bearing life. 

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