Moving away from the conventional design using greased steel bearings and adopting high-performance polymer bearings – by linear and bearing technology provider igus – across the key pivot points of its new lifts, has helped materials handling specialist REV Designs & Installations increase the uptime of its scissor lifts.

REV Designs chief designer Ricardo Viljoen says the switch has “exceeded expectations”, noting that the original scissor lifts were in operation for about five years and boasted a “striking” service history. The company has only been called back twice over the last five years for a light yearly service and general inspection for a customer in the timber industry.

The client required three scissor lifts, each capable of handling up to 40 t a lift, all engineered to operate in harsh, high dust sawmilling environments where uptime is critical.

Viljoen notes that the comparatively small design change has saved the customer many hours and costs that would otherwise have been associated with servicing and maintaining greased steel bearings. Further, those bearings would have inevitably  resulted in several failures per lift per year.

“The igus polymer bearings have operated without lubrication or adjustment and without any sign of wear severe enough to warrant replacement. The scissor lifts themselves have also run trouble-free, reinforcing the success of the bearing choice and overall design,” he explains.

Further, he points out that the customer’s own maintenance teams have confirmed that there has “never been a problem with the bushes . . . nor anything with the scissor lifts”.

Moreover, this kind of long-term reliability, Viljoen says, in a demanding environment, has had a direct impact on REV Designs’ design philosophy.

As such, all of the company’s new scissor lifts as well as numerous other loading and lifting solutions produced by the company are standardised on igus polymer plain bearings and bushings.

“Bearings need to be exceptionally strong to handle the massive forces generated during heavy lifting. At the same time they have to resist the ingress of debris that quickly seizes or damages metal-on-metal bearings,” Viljoen explains.

The sawmilling sector is notoriously harsh on mechanical systems with fine sawdust, moisture and abrasive debris constantly entering mechanical clearances, destroying traditional bearings and requiring frequent greasing, he adds.

By working closely with igus polymer bearing specialist Juan-Eric Davidtz, REV Designs identified the correct iglide materials for each pivot point on scissor lift pivot, caster or other moving application.

Viljoen adds that the polymer bearings have become “integral to nearly all new designs” as a result of their ruggedness, predictable performance and dramatically reduced maintenance requirements.

He notes that the igus polymer solution has enabled REV Designs to offer equipment with significantly longer service intervals and minimal maintenance.

“By partnering with igus and applying the correct polymer materials at every pivot point the company has created some of the most reliable heavy-duty scissor lifts in South Africa, capable of operating in the harshest industrial environments,” Viljoen concludes.