No Mechanical Contact
Since there is no mechanical contact either during normal operation or whilst the machine is at rest, assuming the Magnetic Bearing is not turned off, there is no wear on the bearing system both during run up, run down or normal full speed operation. This eliminates mechanical maintenance and provides extended service life in most cases for many years.

No Oil Contamination of Process Fluid
The Magnetic Bearing does not use oil and thus there can be no oil contamination of the process fluid. This is of particular importance in pipeline compressors and air separation plant where the cost of oil extraction resultant from leakage at bearings and seals can be extremely high.

No Liquids
A cleaner and safer environment, decreases dramatically or in most
cases eliminate the potential for fire.

No Lubrication System
Since no lubricating oil system is required for the bearing it does not have to be purchased. This eliminates the needs for pumps, filters, tanks, piping and coolers, which in high specification applications can lead to considerable cost savings.

Capability to Operate in a Process Fluid
Operating the Magnetic Bearings in the process fluid, either directly or by canning, eliminates the need for one or both seals. This also results in considerable cost savings.

Wide Temperature Range Capability
The Magnetic Bearing system, if constructed from the correct materials, is capable of operating through an extremely wide temperature range. We have applications from -180°C to +480°C, thus allowing operation where traditional fluid film bearings will not function.

  


High Speed Capability
The only limitation of speed is the bursting speed of the laminations fitted to the rotor shaft. This will allow machines to operate at speeds where all other types of bearing will fail.

Low Energy Consumption
The only significant power loss in a Magnetic Bearing is the rotor windage since there are no power losses due to the churning of oil. On high-speed applications this can result in tens of kW savings, which over a potential 20 year operating life will result in major cost savings.

Controllable Rotor Dynamics
The rotor dynamics are a function of the electronic control cabinet and can be adjusted to suit any machine operating condition. This greatly increases machine flexibility and has the potential to allow standard bearings to operate in any machine environment with the electronic cabinet catering for differences in machine design. Stiffness and damping coefficients can be scheduled against rotor speed to avoid critical speeds.

Vibration Attenuation
Magnetic Bearings have the ability to reduce vibration either by allowing the rotor to rotate about its centre of inertia, rather than centre of gravity, or else by filtering out specific frequencies.

Improved Machine Diagnostics
In order to function the Magnetic Bearing must determine rotor position, rotor vibration and bearing load. This information, which is processed in the electronic control cabinet can be given as an output to the OEM or end user such that there is constant knowledge of the operating state of the machine. This allows the user to plan maintenance and often avoids the cost of purchase of a separate Bently Nevada type monitoring system.

Increased Reliability/Availability
All the above contribute to this, which is the most important benefit of Magnetic Bearings. Reliability/availability in excess of that currently achieved with traditional hydrodynamic fluid film bearings has already been proven.