Mounting and maintenance tools

A new bearing installed with hammer blows is already damaged. The impact passes through the rolling elements and marks the raceways: the part turns, looks fine, and fails a few months later without anyone understanding why.

Mounting kits solve the basics: sleeves and discs that transmit force to the correct ring rather than the other. You drive the inner ring when the fit is on the shaft, the outer ring when it is on the housing, and never through the balls.

Induction heaters are the correct way to mount bearings in medium and large diameters. The bearing expands a few tenths of a millimeter, slides onto the shaft by itself and fits tight when it cools. No open flame, no oil bath and without altering the steel's heat treatment, which is what a torch ruins.

Pullers do the reverse job and are the most often missing tools in a shop: without a puller, dismounting ends up involving heat and pry bars, the shaft seat gets damaged and the problem carries over to the next replacement part.

Laser alignment tools tackle the other major cause of premature failure. A motor misaligned with the machine punishes the bearings on both sides, the coupling and the seal. It is corrected in one hour and it shows in the year's spare parts invoice.

This is the product line least often purchased in advance and the one most regretted when the machine is already down.