Oil & Gas Industry Applications

High-Speed Compressors, Turbines, And Gearbox Bearings Machinery designers of high-speed equipment for the Oil & Gas Industry have been continually pushed towards higher speeds and increased reduced power loss in order to maximize process throughput and efficiency. The bearing design limits the operating limits of the machine, which results in a constant pressure to expand the operating range of our bearings.

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Eliminating axial vibration

Predicting journal pad temperatures

Kingsbury has dedicated a major portion of its Research & Development budget and Testing Programs in an effort to accurately model bearing behavior and provide new and modified designs to maximize high-speed bearing operating range and performance.

Kingsbury Expert Services For Oil & Gas

• Evaluation, repair, and rebabbitting of thrust and journal bearings for standard and special applications
• Analysis of existing bearing performance and predictions of bearing performance under additional operating parameters
• Design enhancements or replacements using pre-engineered Kingsbury standard and custom-designed bearing systems

• Leading Edge Groove (LEG™) bearings for reduced oil flow and power loss and increased load capacity at high speeds
• Chrome-copper thrust and journal bearing pad-material retrofits for reducing maximum pad temperatures
• Offset-pivot and other geometries for thrust and journal pads to increase load capacity and reduce operating temperatures
• Bearing designs to improve rotordynamic stability and to predict and resolve vibration issues in thrust and journal bearings

Expert Solutions For Demanding Application

At Kingsbury, simply conquering tough bearing challenges isn’t enough. In the early 1990s, shaft speeds of compressors and related drive and transmission equipment had increased to the point that bearing performance (temperatures and power loss) were limiting the design of larger, faster, more efficient machinery and machine trains. Kingsbury developed and tested its Leading Edge Groove (LEG™) directed-lube bearing for both thrust and journal bearings. This design provided superior bearing performance at reduced oil flows, which translates into higher machine efficiency.

Today, the LEG™ is a standard Kingsbury design that has been proven in thousands of compressors, turbines, and other applications in a variety of applications and markets. Ask us to evaluate your application to see if we can offer you better results with an LEG retrofit.

The Advantages Of LEG Technology

• Reduces operating temperatures by 10º F to 45º F depending on shaft speed
• Increases load capacity by 15% – 20%, reducing required bearing size
• Lowers oil flow by 50%, allowing for reduced lube system demand
• Improves efficiency – up to a 45% reduction in friction losses

Kingsbury Has Solutions For High Speed Problems

LEG thrust bearing with chrome-copper shoes

LEG journal bearing

LEG lubrication path