Bearing the strain

Bearings may not be the most glamorous of mechanical components, yet they perform a vital role in a host of innovative applications — from the enormous bearings which drive wind turbines and open roofs at sports stadiums to tiny ones within electronic devices.

It is often the large, high-profile engineering achievements that put bearings in the spotlight.

Scotland’s Falkirk Wheel, a giant rotating boatlift, is one example. It is the only structure of its kind in the world, transferring boats between the Forth and Clyde Canal, and the Union Canal between Glasgow and Edinburgh, over a vertical gap equivalent to the height of eight double-decker buses.

The wheel, the centrepiece of the Millennium Link, a £78m British Waterways-led project, measures 35m in diameter, with an axle length of 28m.

The idea of connecting the canals via a rotating boatlift was put forward and originally conceived as a giant Ferris wheel with suspended gondolas. For this design, SKF proposed large, double row, spherical roller bearings and specially-designed bearing housings to support the wheel.