Shaft bearing and seal design for a concrete mixer bucket

[adamjedgar]

I am thinking of building a concrete mixer bucket for my bobcat (probably about 250 litres in size ....approx a little over half ton of concrete capacity). The mixing shaft will not spin very fast...similar speed to a normal electric concrete mixer.

There is a rotating driven shaft that comes in through the sides of the bucket that i need to mount with bearings and seals on both ends...

Will a normal earthmoving type dust seal be good enough for rotating shaft in a wet concrete environment?
I have spoken with a seal supplier and they suggest some kind of wiping system needs to be used that is grease pressurised on the backside to prevent ingress of abrasive laden fluid into the seal/bearing area?

Anyone have any ideas on how to prevent the abrasive nature of concrete from destroying shaft seals and the bearings?

[Muz]

I am thinking of building a concrete mixer bucket for my bobcat (probably about 250 litres in size ....approx a little over half ton of concrete capacity). The mixing shaft will not spin very fast...similar speed to a normal electric concrete mixer.

There is a rotating driven shaft that comes in through the sides of the bucket that i need to mount with bearings and seals on both ends...

Will a normal earthmoving type dust seal be good enough for rotating shaft in a wet concrete environment?
I have spoken with a seal supplier and they suggest some kind of wiping system needs to be used that is grease pressurised on the backside to prevent ingress of abrasive laden fluid into the seal/bearing area?

Anyone have any ideas on how to prevent the abrasive nature of concrete from destroying shaft seals and the bearings?

The weight of any mixture in the drum will put a lot of pressure on any seals, and the ingress of that type of material will destroy any bearing in minutes, which is the reason all mixer drums are sealed units, and the bearings are retained in a separate enclosures behind the drum

[digger-man-dumper]

The weight of any mixture in the drum will put a lot of pressure on any seals, and the ingress of that type of material will destroy any bearing in minutes, which is the reason all mixer drums are sealed units, and the bearings are retained in a separate enclosures behind the drum

MUZZ has fair point,, We were selling Thomas skid steer loaders up until Thomas went out of business in 2007 / 2008 & had done a fair with them selling about 400 machines in our time, They used a very very heavy duty seal to seal the bearing on the axle half shaft, may be you could use a seal like this to make a seal between the bearing & the mixing drum, the seal was about 3" out side & 2" inside diameter. Do a search for Thomas 153 wheel bearing seal.
We do have them in stock if its something you think will work.

[econcrete]

Concrete Mixture

If you going for construction service or any construction related project, you should use or go for ready mix concrete. It is a premix product and directly supply to your construction area. You have no tension about its quality. For this you can hire a ready mix concrete supplier to deliver the concrete.
For more information visit our website : https://www.econcrete.co.uk/services.php

[245dlc]

MUZZ has fair point,, We were selling Thomas skid steer loaders up until Thomas went out of business in 2007 / 2008 & had done a fair with them selling about 400 machines in our time, They used a very very heavy duty seal to seal the bearing on the axle half shaft, may be you could use a seal like this to make a seal between the bearing & the mixing drum, the seal was about 3" out side & 2" inside diameter. Do a search for Thomas 153 wheel bearing seal.
We do have them in stock if its something you think will work.

Sorry to be off topic but why did Thomas go out of business in the first place? I live in Canada and remember at one time seeing quite a few of their skid-steers and had a friend that owned one and said it was a much tougher machine than Bobscrap...sorry I mean Bobcat.