I am running an belt-drive elevator with a counterweight and carriage suspended by wire-rope and pulleys. The counterweight runs on two 1/2" shafts that are four inches apart and has four bearings total (2 on each shaft). The bearings pairs are 16" apart from each other. The bearing are plastic and open (N.B. #TW8-OPN) and run on fixed shafts that have been aligned to the correct width. We are running the elevator at about .7 m/s, the counter weight sees very little load since it is a balance system.
The problem that came up after about 2 months of operation was a loud hammer-like "banging" noise coming from the counterweight as it traveled. When i inspected the bearings i found one ball to be missing from one circuit in one of the bearings. Could these bearings prodice such a noise under any conditions??? What else could possibly be creating this noise? The noise disappeared when the shafts screws were loosened, but came back when aligned and tightened. any thoughts?
The problem that came up after about 2 months of operation was a loud hammer-like "banging" noise coming from the counterweight as it traveled. When i inspected the bearings i found one ball to be missing from one circuit in one of the bearings. Could these bearings prodice such a noise under any conditions??? What else could possibly be creating this noise? The noise disappeared when the shafts screws were loosened, but came back when aligned and tightened. any thoughts?
