Orkot bearing materials prove ‘ship-shape’ at Bristol port

Orkot bearing materials prove ‘ship-shape’ at Bristol port The Bristol Port Company has reconfirmed its confidence in the exceptional sealing capabilities of Orkot TLMM and TXMM composite bearing materials by recently choosing it for upgrades on two gates at the Avonmouth Dock in addition to its proven use in gates at the Royal Portbury Dock. “Orkot works, and in a highly stressed envir onment this is extremely important,” says Port Infrastructure Manager Dave Ridout. This non-asbestos non-corroding and low wear material is compliant with both stainless steel as used on the Royal Portbury Dock and granite as used on the Avonmouth dock. It was chosen for the gate heel post bearings, mitre pads and head bearings for both docks. On the mitre gates (lock gates) the bearings fi t on the heel post and run against t he quoin. The latest use has been as the bearing material for the top hinge bearing. Main benefits of these materials include good sealing capabilities, meaning reduced water loss, especially on stainless steel, combined with ease of manufacture. The Port reports cost-sav ings from use of the Orkot ma terials as bearings, since the original bearings were coming loos e and had to be replaced by divers. TXMM is manufactured from medium weave fabrics with ex cellent mechanical strength and has a unique low friction bearing surface incorporating molybdenum disulphide and PTFE. Recommended for use where a combination of strength and very low friction is required, it can run completely dr y and eliminate stick-slip in many applications. A s well as greatly reducing the coefficient of friction, the ma terial’s elastic properties allo w for bearing deformation under h eavy loads or misalignment, which distributes the load over a larger contact area t hus reducing the bearing contact stress. Benefits of Orkot TLMM advanced reinforced polymer marine materi al, also incorporating solid lubricants, include exceptional wear resistance and virtually no swell in water, providing great dimensional stability, to lerating edge loading and misalignmen t even with the heaviest loads

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