Normal Bearing Wear 

The bearings supplied in rotary screw compressor airends are expected to maintain internal clearances of a few thousandths of an inch (less than half the thickness of a sheet of paper) for many years of continuous service. These bearings do wear out eventually at a rate dependent on many design and environmental variables. Design variables include factors such as number, quality and type of airend bearings (they are not all the same), speed and pressure at which the airend is run, provisions for filtration, coolant capacity and so on.

Normally compressor manufacturers quote an average airend bearing life expectancy of 40,000 hours or more. This is the equivalent to 5 years or more of 24 hour per day duty. However, to achieve this longevity you must avoid some of the causes of premature failure. Please return to the previous page for information on these causes.