VESCONITE HYDRO

The environmentally sensitive hydro-power industry requires components that last longer in the absence of contaminating lubricants. These two factors alone make Vesconite Hilube the ideal bushing and bearing material in these demanding conditions. Water serves as a natural lubricant for Vesconite Hilube, which in turn, ensures a clean and grease-free operating environment. Unlike many traditional materials, Vesconite Hilube does not swell in water, nor does it distort or creep under load within wet hydro-power settings. Therefore not only does Vesconite last longer, so do its metal counterparts.

Common Hydro Applications

BENEFITS FOR HYDRO

  • Vesconite Hilube does not require external lubrication, avoiding water contamination.
  • Vesconite Hilube can run dry – important for pump start-up and priming.
  • Water is a natural lubricant for Vesconite Hilube.
  • Vesconite Hilube does not swell in water, reducing risk of seizure and allowing for close tolerances.
  • Vesconite Hilube has a low friction coefficient, eliminating vibration and the stick-slip effect.
  • Vesconite Hilube’s unique combination of properties ensures long life and little downtime.

MATERIAL COMPARISON

Traditional bushings require costly maintenance downtime time on pump turbines.

Metal or rubber bushes can degrade quickly in dirty and abrasive environments
e.g trash rake pivot points.

The low friction of Vesconite Hilube avoids stick slip on pressure relief valve guides.

Wicket gate bushing lubrication is often difficult due to the micro-oscillating movements associated with this application.
Vesconite Hilube’s self-lubricating properties avoids this entirely.

Vesconite Hydro Case Studies
When engineers at Hoover Dam determined that the original cast iron lantern rings built into some of its turbines needed to be…
When one hydroelectric plant operator took an environmental stance against water pollution, it went cold turkey on its use of grease in its plants.
A hydro turbine company based in Portland, Maine, USA, has chosen Vesconite Bearings’ lowest-friction material for the thrust bearings on its free-stream turbines.The material, Vesconite…
Indian hydro-electric projects offer unique challenges: they are exposed to monsoon floods for a few months of the year and then a…
A San Diego hydro-electric plant has been operating with Vesconite Hilube wicket gate bushings since August 2022. Hollow bar for the bushings…
Hydro turbine bearing components machined from Vesconite Hilube have been installed at the Crai Water Turbine and Pollok Sawmill Projects in Wales…
There is one less thing for hydro engineers to worry about when designing dams. This is if they choose Vesconite Hilube speciality…
Vesconite Hilube trunnion bearings have been used on the Kruisvallei Hydro Power Plant’s tainter gates, which are to be installed this year…
Vesconite Hilube bushings, which were installed on the control arm linkages on the radial deep sluice gates on a hydropower dam on…
Vesconite Hilube was tested by an independent laboratory in Vancouver, Canada, in 2002. The purpose of the test was to evaluate the performance of self-lubricating Vesconite Hilube bushings for use in wicket gate applications in hydroelectric turbines.
After a long testing campaign where a series of self-lubricating products were tested in the Centre de Technology in Grenoble, France...
A 5-wing Kaplan wheel turbine that was supplied to Haapakosken Tehdas Oy in 2007 included a Vesconite Hilube bearing with an outside diameter...
Twenty Vesconite Hilube staves were provided for Drop 4, Unit 2, of GE Hydro’s Imperial Irrigation Project.
Two significant Argentinian hydroelectric projects have chosen Vesconite: Central Los Quiroga and Planta Hidroeléctrica Cabra Corral-Salta.
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