Bently EPP Gas Bearings are similar to oil based bearings in that they have the same load capacities and size formats. So an oil journal bearing can be replaced with a gas journal bearing without modifications to the stator or rotor components. Bently Gas Bearings are also available in tilt pad deigns; again they may be made bolt for bolt replaceable with original oil bearings. This possibly extends to thrust bearing also.

This means that any compressor, pump, turbine, motor, expander, blower, etc. that uses oil bearings, is a possible candidate for retrofit to gas bearings. It is recognized that if a piece of equipment is running without issue there is no motivation to change. But there are machines that have “issues” with oil. One common issue is that the oil gets too hot and solutions like bigger oil tanks and oil chillers are too expensive or there is no room for them. A switch to gas bearings that can operate at 400c continuously may be a simple solution.

It is not unusual for machines to leak oil, some mysteriously, like where is the oil going? To stop the mess and avoid the future costs, consider a switch to gas bearings as a solution. Oil is flammable and when operating at high temperatures even more so. Large motors and generators often have electrical brushes, and commutators or exciters that could spark. Because oil is not compressible, in loss of power it has only gravity feed. So we put oil tanks over hot turbines! Gas is compressible and even a large machine could run for hours on a single Nitrogen cylinder. This dramatically reduces the size and complexity of back up systems and avoids the fundamental hazard of oil fires.