In this day and age where productivity means higher speeds, higher operational temperatures and reduced maintenance, bearings are expected to exceed the bounds of former possibilities. New and advanced applications are setting higher demands on bearings, especially under extreme operating conditions, where there is the risk of smearing, boundary lubrication, sudden load variations, low loads or high operational temperatures.

To withstand these types of severe operating conditions SKF bearings can be furnished with a low friction ceramic coating on the contact surfaces inside the bearing. This coating, trademarked NoWear, was developed by SKF for rolling bearings and is covered by an SKF patent.

Bearing designs

NoWear bearings make sense whenever bearings are failing prematurely due to severe operating conditions. NoWear bearings can withstand longer periods of insufficient lubrication, sudden variations in load and rapid speed changes, vibrations and oscillations.

NoWear bearings open up new possibilities to existing applications operating under severe conditions, without introducing major design changes and enable freedom in new designs. They have already been proven in a wide range of extreme applications, including paper machines, marine and offshore applications, fans, compressors, hydraulic pumps and motors.

Most SKF ball and roller bearings can be obtained in a NoWear execution. Other executions might be available on request


NoWear bearings of L5DA execution

NoWear bearings of the L5DA execution are the most commonly used bearings. These NoWear bearings are equipped with coated rolling elements (fig. 1) and are recommended for applications where the bearing load is low to medium, or where vibrations and oscillations are present.


NoWear bearings of L7DA execution

NoWear bearings of the L7DA execution have the coating applied to the rolling elements and the inner ring raceway(s) (fig. 2). This execution is recommended for applications where abrasive wear resistance is crucial or load is heavy.