SKF and Great Plains Manufacturing Collaborate to Reduce Tilling Machinery Downtime and Improve Farm Yields
SKF, together with its brand PEER, engineers new seal to withstand harsh agricultural conditions in Russia's Black Earth region
LANSDALE, Pa., May 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SKF, a global manufacturer of bearings, seals, lubricants, and condition monitoring systems, worked in partnership with Great Plains Manufacturing, a global manufacturer of agricultural implements for tillage, seeding, and planting, to create a new 7-lip seal package to prolong the life of agricultural tillage equipment and help farmers achieve maximum yield during harvests.
Great Plains Ag, a division of Great Plains Mfg. develops tillage equipment for seedbed
preparation, but in the Black Earth Region of Russia, key bearings critical to the operation of
tilling equipment were wearing out halfway through the region's farming season. During analysis by SKF and Great Plains engineering teams, significant dirt pack intrusion was found to be a common issue impacting the function of the bearings and leading to machine downtime.
In response, Great Plains and SKF engineers worked side-by-side to update the machinery's design to include a more robust bearing seal that would help better prevent dirt pack-related failures. SKF in the U.S. developed a 7-lip seal by redesigning the seal package to help eliminate dirt pack between the bearing, housing and spool, which outperformed the existing seal design. By minimizing the pressure from the dirt pack against the seals, the equipment can operate more effectively for a longer life cycle.
"Our long partnership with Great Plains led to this successful collaboration to develop an agricultural bearing that can withstand some of the most extreme climate challenges found around the globe. It's a great development for the agricultural community, as it creates a more durable, longer lasting bearing, which extends the availability of the equipment, and increases uptime in the field," said Chris Larson, Strategic Account Manager for SKF.
In addition to retrofitting prior tilling machinery models with the newly redesigned 7-lip TILLXTREME® seal, Great Plains also included the TILLXTREME® seal on its new Great Plains hybrid tillage solution, the Terra-Max, when it launched in September of 2020. Initial in-field testing has been extremely positive, earning high marks from the farmer and outperforming all the customer's goals for uptime and availability.
"Working with our long-time partner SKF Group on this specific challenge, led to a collaborative solution that enabled a better, longer-lasting product for all our customers globally." said Rodney Hake, Engineering Manager for Great Plains. "Our new Terra-Max tillage line-up leaves a uniform, unrestricted soil profile that promotes maximum root development and increases yields for farmers working in the world's most challenging areas."
As part of its global business strategy, SKF is focused on projects that positively impact people, climate footprint and customer sustainability performance. This project helps meet the environmental sustainability goals set by SKF to improve customers' operational and financial performance, and sustainability performance as well. These goals reduce risks and increase safety for operators during maintenance, lead to lower energy use, optimize production output, improve product service life and enable remanufacturing, reduction of waste and a circular economic model.
About SKF USA Inc.
SKF USA Inc. is the U.S. subsidiary of SKF Group, a world leader in rolling bearings and related technologies including sealing solutions, lubrication systems, mechatronics, and services.
About Great Plains
Great Plains Ag, a division of Great Plains Mfg., Inc., is a company proud of its Midwestern roots. Based in Salina, Kansas, Great Plains Ag has been a leader in seeding equipment since its inception in 1976. Now a Kubota Company, Great Plains not only remains a leading producer of Grain Drills but is also recognized across North America as a leader in Vertical Tillage and Conventional Tillage Equipment, Fertilizer Applicators, Sprayers, Planters, Compact Drills, and now Rotary Cutters.
For further information, please contact:
Fal Dieso, Vice President of Marketing
[email protected]
SKF's mission is to be the undisputed leader in the bearing business. We do this by offering solutions that reduce friction and CO2 emissions, whilst at the same time increasing machine uptime and performance. Our products and services around the rotating shaft, including bearings, seals, lubrication management, artificial intelligence and wireless condition monitoring. SKF is represented in more than 130 countries and has around 17,000 distributor locations worldwide. Annual sales in 2020 were SEK 74 852 million and the number of employees was 40,963. www.skf.com
® SKF is a registered trademark of the SKF Group.
SOURCE SKF USA
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