Turbine Guide Bearings

SXL

Box320x190_0001_SXL MGB

Thordon SXL offers the lowest coefficient of friction, superior adhesive wear performance and good resistance to wear resulting from third particle abrasion.

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GM2401

Thordon GM2401 is specially formulated to provide optimal wear resistance in abrasive-laden water conditions, routinely outwearing rubber bearings by a factor of two or more, yet, still exhibiting a significantly lower coefficient of friction compared to rubber.

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Documents

Hydro-Turbine Bearings & Seals Brochure PDF, 2.08 MB
SXL Water Lubricated Main Shaft Guide Bearings PDF, 79.75 KB Overview of Thordon's SXL Water Lubricated Turbine Guide Bearing and the benefits of Thordon's Tapered Key Design
Water Quality Package Brochure for Hydro Applications PDF, 545.05 KB Thordon's self contained pumping unit removes abrasives from river water.

Technical Papers

An Oil to Water Conversion of a Hydro Turbine Main Guide Bearing PDF, 488.62 KB An Oil to Water Conversion of Hydro Turbine Main Guide Bearing - Technical and Environmental Aspects technical paper.
Reducing Maintenance with Water Lubricated Turbine Guide Bearings PDF, 1.59 MB
Nashua Hydro SXL Main Guide Bearing Conversion Johnson Packing PDF, 2.13 MB
Alstom Spain using Thordon MGBs Rev 1 PDF, 1.90 MB

References

Reference articles of Thordon turbine guide bearings.

Design

The final (fully finished) sizing of a Thordon elastomer or ThorPlas bearing can be determined by using the Thordon Bearing Sizing Calculation Program.

You cannot run the Thordon Bearing Sizing Calculation Program Version 2017, Release 10 without a User Registration Number. Once you have a User Registration Number you can download the Program below and enter it when prompted.

Click here to Request a Bearing Sizing Program User Registration Number

If you have a Bearing Sizing Program User Registration Number, you can download the program here

Thordon Elastomeric Bearings Engineering Manual PDF, 4.01 MB

Videos

Thordon’s SXL turbine guide bearing with tapered keyset and SXL radial shaft seal assembly provides a fully integrated solution, engineered for the application and entirely free of oil and grease for environmental compliance.

A short 13min film highlighting the process of converting a hydro-turbine main shaft guide bearing from an oil lubricated system to water.

Thordon SXL Bearing being squished or compressed in a hydraulic press.

Thordon SXL is a cross-linked elastomeric polymer alloy bearing with properties that provide resilience, toughness, and material memory in the marine, clean power, pump and industrial applications. This video tests the limits of how tough and resilient Thordon SXL really is. Try these easy tests with other bearing materials and see what happens.

Thordon SXL segmented axial and radial seals last longer and reduce life-cycle costs compared to carbon graphite seals. This video shows why Thordon SXL is so much easier to handle and install compared to carbon graphite.

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Hydro Power
Ryan Edmonds

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Our Newsletter

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Read our most recent newsletter

Thordon Hydro NewsWorks 2019

Thordon’s web-based newsletter specifically developed for hydro and clean power users of oil-free and grease-free bearings. This newsletter includes feature articles about multiple successful turbine guide bearing conversions, T-G DNALOP purchasing a small hydro power plant in Poland, and a recent success of Thordon installed in a tidal energy application.
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Recent Hydro Power News

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Back by Popular Demand! Thordon Experts Discuss 30 Years of Hydro Turbine Experience in a Series of Online Technical Seminars

May 09, 2022

Thordon Bearings will run a series of web-based technical seminars to help Canadian hydro power plant operators recognize and solve common problems with wicket gate bushings, turbine guide bearings, turbine shaft seals, and cooling water & filtration systems.
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Genesis Energy's Tekapo A Plant Completes Thordon Bearing Upgrade

Sep 28, 2020

New Zealand’s Genesis Energy has completed a first phase refurbishment of the 190MW hydro power plant at Lake Tekapo, in the South Island. Through its Auckland-based distributor Henley Group, Thordon supplied ThorPlas-Blue wicket gate bushes, Thorseal lip seals (which replaced nitrile rubber sealing rings in the lower and intermediate wicket gate bearings), and SXL operating ring wear pads. A new SXL turbine guide bearing, upgraded with better tolerances, was designed, supplied and installed. The shaft seal carbon segments were also replaced with SXL segments.
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