Pioneer Machinery manufactures a variety of bearing products for industrial customers. It was founded in 1990 and has since expanded its product lines through acquisitions and innovations. Today it focuses on developing high-performance bearings for demanding applications in industries such as oil and gas.

1. Founded in 1990 , Pioneer Machinery originally manufactured bearing products
including tapered roller bearings, spherical bearings, and needle roller bearings.
Since its earliest days, Pioneer Machinery has been at the forefront of bearing
technology, and provided solutions to industrial customers’ problems. Today, our
customers are a virtual “who’s who” of global industry – Caterpillar, Boeing,
Honeywell, Arvin Meritor, Volvo, Dana, Federal Mogul, Oshkosh, Chicago Rawhide,
Motion Industries, Applied Materials, Deere & Company, Komatsu, and the U.S.
Government, among others.
Throughout the 1990s, the company continued to grow through acquisition of
complementary bearing manufacturers. Today, the family of highly engineered
Pioneer Machinery and related products includes: ball bearings, rod ends, cam
followers, ball screws, thin sections ball bearings, spherical plain bearings, tapered
roller and tapered thrust roller bearings, airframe control, self-lubricating, and
custom-engineered bearings.
More recently, Pioneer Machinery introduced the cam follower as a maintenance-free
alternative to the standard needle roller cam follower. This innovation offers five
times the operating life and twice the speed of its closest competitor, and has
performed extremely well in difficult applications in the packaging, bottling/canning,
material handling, automation and specialty machinery markets. Other innovations
in spherical plain bearings include QuadLube®, ImpactTuff®, and SpreadLock®
seals for heavy-duty industrial applications, such as construction, mining, and
agriculture. Our Pitchlign® series of heavy duty needle roller bearings is the bearing
of choice in marine crankshafts and connecting rods, gear pumps, oil field pumping
jacks, and mud pumps.
In the unforgiving conditions of the oil and gas industry, stress, heat and
contamination constantly threaten to derail the performance of drilling equipment,
pumps and other oil and gas extraction equipment. In these environments, where
safety is paramount and downtime is costly, Pioneer Machinery’s heavy duty bearings
for the oil and gas industry provide the performance and durability to keep operations
running smoothly
When you do business with Pioneer Machinery, you work with a company that
understands the key issues in the oil and gas industry and is focused on developing
bearing assemblies that last longer, require less maintenance and perform better than
anything else on the market.
With short lead times, quick turnarounds and a global network of manufacturing, sales
and service facilities, Pioneer Machinery is positioned to take on the most challenging
oil and gas bearing needs with unequaled responsiveness. With industry-leading
research and development facilities and state-of-the-art manufacturing operations, our
self-lubricating bearings comply with a wide range of global quality control and
environmental standards, including:

2. ISO 9001
ISO 14001
ISO/TS 16949
AS9100C
OHSAS 18001
Pioneer Machinery works with some of the world’s leading companies and their
Tier-1 suppliers to provide reliable, high-performance bearings for oil and gas
applications, including:
National Oilwell Varco
Schlumberger
GE Oil & Gas
Weatherford
Pentair
Helmerich & Payne
MH Wirth
Emerson
Pioneer Machinery offers a broad product range of metal-polymer, fiber reinforced
composite and engineered plastics plain bearings as well as bushing blocks and thrust
plates, metal and bimetal bearings and assemblies. Our bearings provide exceptional
performance over a wide range of load, speed and temperature conditions. These
self-lubricating bearings are resistant to wear, chemicals, cavitation, flow erosion and
fatigue, making them ideal for a wide range of uses in oil and gas operations.
The GGB-CSM® series is made of solid material and the bimetal GGB-CBM® series
features sliding layers sintered onto metallic backings. Both are self-lubricating for
maintenance-free performance and provide high load capacity, a broad temperature
range (up to 600°) and corrosion resistance.
From the top of the derrick to the ocean floor and from the pipeline to the pump, our
bearing solutions provide longer service life, reduced maintenance and grease-free
operation in a wide variety of oil and gas recovery applications, including:
Valves
Actuators
Pipe Hangers
Slide Plates
Iron Roughnecks
Top Drives
Pumpjacks
Draw Works
Blow-out Preventers
Marine Riser Tensioners
Platform Cranes and Sheaves
Heave Winch and Fairleads
Watertight and Gastight Doors

3. Principal product lines include:
Spherical Plain Bearings
Ball Bearings
Cam Followers
Self-Lubricating Bearings
Pins, Rollers, Shafts
Rod Ends
Heavy Duty Needle Roller Bearings
Tapered/Tapered Thrust Roller Bearings
Heavy Duty Fleet Customers
Thin Section Ball Bearings
Collets/Toolholders
Operating conditions in the oil and gas industry are known for high stress, heat and
contamination.
Our portfolio of bearings for oil & gas applications offers improved energy efficiency,
reduced noise, and lower assembly and material costs in addition to greater
performance and environmental benefits. Customers can rely on our comprehensive
support from design to delivery and beyond, including some of the industry’s shortest
lead times.
Pioneer Machinery high performance bearings offer reliable and safe solutions for
every stage in oil and gas development, including drilling, production and processing
operations.
Low Friction and High Wear Resistance
Low coefficients of friction eliminate the need for lubrication while reducing wear
and extending service life.
Maintenance-Free
Our self-lubricating bearings are ideal for applications requiring long bearing life
without continuous maintenance or operating conditions with little or no lubrication.
Lower System Cost
Pioneer Machinery bearings reduce shaft costs by eliminating the need for hardening
and machining grease paths. Their compact, one-piece construction provides space
and weight savings and simplifies assembly.
Environmental
Greaseless, lead-free bearings comply with increasingly stringent environmental
regulations such as the RoHS directive for electrical and electronic equipment.

4. SELECTION OF BEARING CLEARANCE
Theoretically, maximum bearing life is with very slight preload. However, even a
slight increase in this theoretical preload can have a considerably detrimental effect on
the bearing life. Positive clearance should therefore be selected. MC3 is usually used
for miniature or small bearings, standard clearance for general bearings and the
clearance for thin section bearings should never be greater than "standard".
NOTES ON SELECTING
• The efficiency of thin type bearings can be greatly affected by the precision of
shaft and housing seats. The accuracy of the surrounding structure must be
such that it will not adversely affect the operation of the bearing. If you have
any questions, in particular regarding series 670 and 680, please contact us.
• In applications with steel crown type cages ( w type), where high acceleration,
heavy loads, shock loads or vertical shafts occur or where oil is the only
lubricant available, please contact us.
• Selection of fitting clearance and grease type requires a careful consideration
of rotating speed, load conditions and temperature in order to prevent
premature bearing failure.
• Full complement ball bearings are suitable for low speed and heavy radial load
conditions. There is a danger of balls being pushed out of the bearing through
the filling slot, even under light axial load. For this reason, full complement
ball bearings are not suitable for supporting axial loads.
NOTES ON HANDLING
• The actual assembly area should be kept free from dust as any contamination
has a detrimental effect on the operation and life of rolling bearings. If there is
any doubt concerning the cleanliness of a bearing, it can be washed with a
suitable agent and then relubricated.
• When fitting bearings, the fitting forces must not be transmitted via the rolling
elements. If it is necessary to heat the bearing to facilitate fitting, the
temperature should not exceed +120 .
• After assembly, the bearing should be rotated to check its correct operation. If
the bearing does not appear to be functioning correctly, it should be
re-examined to establish the cause of the malfunction.

5. • It is not advisable to mix oils and greases as this will affect the efficiency of
the bearing.
• Bearings must be stored in a clean environment with stable temperature. They
should be handled with care to avoid the possibility of corrosion and rusting.
• Lint-free cloth must be used to wipe shaft and housing seats to avoid the
ingress of contaminants into the bearing.
BEARING LIFE
When bearings rotate, the inner and outer rings and rolling elements are constantly
loaded. This produces material fatigue and eventually bearing failure. The total
number of revolutions before a failure occurs is called the basic rating life.
Life of individual bearings varies considerably, even if they are of the same size, same
material, same heat treatment and are under the same operating conditions.
Statistically, the total number of revolutions reached or exceeded by 90% of a
sufficiently large group of apparently identical bearings before the first evidence of
material fatigue occurs is called the basic rating life.
BASIC DYNAMIC LOAD RATING
The basic dynamic load rating of a bearing with rotating inner ring and stationary
outer ring is that load of constant magnitude and size which a sufficiently large group
of apparently identical bearings can endure for a basic rating life of one million
revolutions.
Radial bearings take central load. Values given for C in the dimension tables of this
catalogue are for standard high chromium steel. 80% to 85% of the chromium steel
values should be used for stainless steel.