Schaeffler Australia Pty Ltd has introduced a new generation of large-size bearing housings engineered to increase the life of fitted spherical roller bearings by up to 50 per cent compared to conventional plummer block housings. Designed for shafts from 115mm to 530mm, the new FAG plummer block housing SNS helps reduce the total cost of ownership of industrial machinery widely used in Australia and New Zealand, including machinery operating in aggressive environments. The radically extended lifespan is made possible by the innovative housing design, which ensures optimum load distribution in the bearing. A very high sealing action against the ingress of contamination under extreme environmental conditions makes the housing suitable for use in aggressive industrial environments. Different sealing variants allow the SNS to be matched to specific environments with particularly harsh contaminant and dust conditions. Key features of the new Schaeffler FAG plummer block housing SNS include an axial lubrication groove in the upper section of the housing ensuring optimum lubricant supply for bearings in every bearing position; excellent anti-corrosion characteristics and reduced cleaning requirements due to inclined run-off areas as well as a projecting upper housing section; and increased strength and shock resistance due to the use of (EN-GJS-400) spheroidal graphite cast iron as standard. All these design features make the plummer block housings in the SNS series particularly suited to applications in harsh environment industries such as mining and energy, oil and gas processing, materials handling (including port loader facilities), manufacturing and steel, primary product and food and beverage processing, pulp, paper, packaging and forestry, and major infrastructure and water and waste water plants. The FAG plummer block housing SNS is 100 per cent interchangeable with conventional solutions; allows easy and precise mounting due to locating surfaces that are reworked by machine and alignment marks; has predefined mounting positons for condition monitoring technology; and features grease outlet holes as standard to simplify maintenance. The SNS series is suitable for standard un-split spherical roller size range 115mm to 530mm, including Schaeffler’s premium performance X-life class of spherical roller bearings as well as Schaeffler’s split spherical roller bearing in size range of 150mm up to 410mm, and spherical roller bearing series 222, 223, 230, 231, 232 and 240. Schaeffler Australia Pty Ltd Industrial Sector and Product Manager Mr Martin Grosvenor observed that the focus during the development of the new SNS plummer block housing was on compliance with customer and application-specific requirements, adding that criteria such as increasing efficiency, robustness and improved condition monitoring played a major role.