Hevi-Rail: The Heavy Duty Roller Bearing

Hevi-Rail is composed of hardened steel, allowing it to excel in the harshest environments. The rails and bearings are designed to evenly disperse load and forces, allowing it to handle up to 60 tons! The result is a combined system that has become the go-to linear motion solution for the most demanding of applications.

One example of the competitor’s linear motion failure deals with a foundry casting tipper. The problem was in the transportation of castings that weighed several tons. Previously, no linear motion system could handle the weight, and would fail after a couple months of operation. This left the foundry with increased production costs and wasted time. To solve the problem, PBC Linear introduced them to their Hevi-Rail system. The Hevi-Rail bearings have been running without failure for well over two years

Applications

Hevi-Rail offers extreme radial load capacities up to 4-1/2 tons per bearing and industrial strength handling applications. It is a heavy-duty linear bearing system that is cost effective for medium to low precision applications. Together, these make the Hevi-Rail guide system a perfect solution for custom lift units and trucks, and heavy load applications in the aerospace, paper, steel, and coil industries. The list below offers a more thorough description of Hevi-Rail applications.

• Material Handling: Other linear guide products rely on precise parallel alignment to reliably handle linear motion tasks such as material handling, lifting and adjustment. They require the installer to conduct a thorough and painstaking checking and re-checking of the monorails to ensure maximum parallelism, resulting in a very costly process. The linear guides also need to be preloaded beforehand for assured system rigidity. In these competitor’s scenarios, when dealing with large loads the preload causes fretting and catastrophic failure in ball-type linear guides and complete stalling in plain bearing products due to exceeding moment load. Hevi-Rail avoids these issues with its unique combined bearing design which allows the bearings to float within the rail, thereby eliminating the need for precise alignment and effectively reducing installation time.

• Telescopic Applications: For high load telescopic handling, Hevi-Rail can support cantilevered loads up to 700 lbs. (318 Kg) extending out 90’’ (2.3 meters). An example of a PBC Linear collaboration with a customer was a design for a new racking system for shipping containers. Previously, the containers were simply filled and shipped, leaving the materials loose inside and able to shift around in transit. PBC Linear worked alongside their design team to create a racking system that could be extended or retracted for easy loading and unloading. This solution required Hevi-Rail combined bearings to handle the extended load and ultimately operate under extremely low maintenance.

• Lift Units: The case-hardened steel design and proven track record of Hevi-Rail bearings have also made it a cost effective and reliable alternative to lift unit tasks. From standard forklifts to custom design systems, Hevi-Rail reduces cost by simplifying assembly and installation. The bearings also thrive in dirty environments and easily roll over dirt, dust and other particulate that would stall ball-type linear guide products. Designed to provide even disbursement of forces throughout the bearing, Hevi-Rail is able to handle radial and axial loads up to 60 tons! Hevi-Rail also requires very little precision due to the floating bearing design. This allows the installer to save time and money, making Hevi-Rail the low cost, long-lasting solution for any heavy industrial linear motion task.