Pumpjacks, also known around the country as oil horses, donkey pumpers, nodding donkeys, horsehead pumps, Big Texans, thirsty birds, or a myriad of other descriptive names, are overground drives used in oil fields to mechanically lift the oil out of onshore wells.
Pumpjacks are driven by industrial motors, which are prime candidates to have their steel ball bearings replaced by ceramic hybrid ball bearings. Although ceramic ball bearings offer many benefits to industrial electric motors of any kind, our pumpjack customers benefit in several specific ways:
Less Equipment Downtime with Ceramic Hybrid Ball Bearings
Ceramic ball bearings are longer wearing, meaning the pumpjack will not have to be broken down for repairs as often. This saves money in repair costs, but perhaps much more importantly, it reduces the machine’s downtime. Pumpjacks can bring thousands of dollars of material to the surface every day, so every day they are down, the company is losing substantial amounts of money. In fact, years ago, we had a customer who was losing tens of thousands of dollars per day when his oil pumping equipment was down. This customer was very appreciative of the speed with which we were able to get them their new ceramic bearings so they could get their equipment back up and running.
More Reliable and Longer Lasting
Pumpjacks are often located in remote areas, rather than in a facility that has a maintenance crew regularly monitoring and caring for them. The long-wearing aspect of our ceramic hybrid ball bearings makes them ideal for use in pumpjacks for this reason.
Energy Savings with Ceramic Bearings
Because ceramic bearings create less friction than comparable steel bearings, systems using ceramic bearings operate more efficiently and use less electricity. If you have multiple pumpjacks (or an entire field of pumpjacks) utilizing ceramic bearings, the energy savings you experience could be significant.
Lower Cost Over the Lifetime of the Bearings
While the initial cost of ceramic ball bearings is typically higher than the cost of traditional steel ball bearings, the price has come down in recent years, and the affordability of our ceramic bearings often surprises our customers. What is more, according to SKF, the largest and most respected bearing manufacturer in the world, ceramic hybrid ball bearings can last up to ten times longer than steel bearings. This makes ceramic bearings a great value, especially when you factor in the less frequent periods of downtime and energy savings mentioned above.
Common bearing sizes for pumpjacks and similar equipment include these series of bearings: 6000, 6200, and 6300. Many of these and other common sizes of ceramic hybrid ball bearings are in stock and ready to ship out for rapid delivery directly from CBR.
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