Namibian Mining News The Professional Mining Journal
Related Articles
SKF recently secured an order for 600 MUDBLOCK cassette seals after these reliable products delivered excellent results during a punishing underground mining field test over a three-month period.
SKF was asked by a long-standing customer, who is a leading supplier of braking systems for off-highway, industrial and underground mining equipment to end-users, to identify particular seals. “Having identified the products as cassette seals, we referenced them to our newly developed SKF MUDBLOCK (MUD11) cassette seals and received a quote from our customer for 300 pieces in Q3 2021,” says Andre Weyers, SKF Product Manager: Seals.
Weyers explains that the name MUDBLOCK is derived from the fact that SKF originally designed these cassette seals for tractor applications in rice planting fields where the seals are submerged in water and mud. Presenting the perfect multi-lip cassette sealing solution, these seals have been specially engineered for heavy-duty jobs and to ensure reliable market-leading performance even in the most stringent and demanding environments.
“Highly confident of the quality and reliability of our MUD11 seals, we managed, after a six-month journey, to convince the end-user to test our cassette seals in their mining application,” continues Weyers. SKF supplied four 165x190MUD11 sample units suited for a specific hub design on mining machines. The punishing wet, muddy, dry and dusty conditions so typical of the underground mining environment proved to be no match for the four 165x190MUD11 sample seals and SKF received an order in March 2022 to supply 600 cassette seal units scheduled for delivery during April 2022.
Weyers points to the fact that for end-users, superior performance, improved reliability, and prolonged service life deliver reduced maintenance and extended uptime for a more productive and profitable operation. “Subsequently, the excellent performance of our MUD11 seals during the field test cemented a solid relationship between our customer and the end-user. SKF’s reputation as a seal system specialist and quality products supplier once again came to the fore. In addition to benefitting from a quality, competitively priced product supplied by a renowned OEM, our customer now conveniently has access to SKF technical support and spare seals in stock,” concludes Weyers.
