By replacing the roller bearings that supported a heavy lift ring crane with CARB^TM, the Dutch firm Huisman-Itrec eliminated fretting corrosion in the bearing seatings and gained longer bearing life.

The crane, which has a lifting capacity of up to 2,400 tonnes, was designed and built in 1996. The crane moves by a crawler and can turn 360 degrees by means of bogie wheels running on a track. Originally each wheel was supported by two roller bearings mounted as non-locating bearings. When the crane turned, the outer rings of the bearings were subjected to continuous small axial movements in the housings which caused fretting corrosion. Also, the bearings became locked in the housings and were subjected to high thrust loads, which led to a sharp reduction of the bearing life.

CARB^TM takes the axial movements inside the bearing under very low friction and negligible thrust loads, which solves the whole problem and significantly increases the reliability and service life.