The bearing is an inevitable component of any machine. It constrains relative motion of the machinery. Ordinarily, bearing is used to reduce the friction between two or more moving parts. Putting it differently you can say, it is the support of the rotating parts of the machine.
Numerous types of bearings are available in the market used for different devices such as needle roller ball bearing, friction ball bearing, a magnetic bearing and what not.
Here are some types of bearings you should know to use in your machines.
- Ball Bearing
It is one of the most commonly used bearings which can handle the radial and thrust load both. Be it a bicycle or heavy machinery; you will find the use of ball bearing everywhere.
These are particularly used to reduce the friction between axles and shafts. The ball bearing transfers the load from the outer to the inner surface that is to say it can rotate smoothly at speed.
- Ball Thrust Bearing
Not all the bearings are designed to handle both the axial and the radial loads. The ball thrust bearings, as the name suggests support the axial loads. These bearings are ordinarily used for the low speed and low weight application.
- Needle Roller Bearing
It is the bearing with cylindrical rollers that holds almost four to ten times longer diameter compared to its length. They are increasingly gaining popularity these days for the reason being its capacity to handle a higher load capacity over a particular radial space. It takes very less surface area and supports the heavy burden which is the reason; it is highly used by engineers for their machines.
- Spherical Roller Bearing
The spherical roller bearing is the one that takes both the thrust and radial load at an extreme speed. Although this type of bearings is difficult to produce and relatively expensive, it gives great results for misaligned loads.
- Tapered Roller Bearing
Just like spherical roller bearing, this also can handle both the loads being conical in shape. This structure of the bearing contacts more surface area that gives a higher speed and lasts long. They are mostly used in the motor vehicle wheels.
- Fluid Bearing
It uses a thin layer of gas or liquid to support the load. The bearings rotate to form the liquid into the lubricating wedge against the inner surface. They are usually used where high capacity, high speed or high precision is required.
- Specialized Bearing
Certain machines have the specific requirements that none of the above bearings can fulfill. The specialized bearings are manufactured in such a way that suits the device for which it is designed. It can be further bifurcated into two categories viz. Magnetic bearing and giant roller bearing.
(i)Magnetic bearing: Unquestionably it can be considered as one of the best bearings for a machine comprising a stator, a rotor, sensors, and electromagnets. It mostly operates in rapidly spinning shafts. There are various magnetic bearings available out of which the Active Magnetic Bearings are widely used.
(ii)Giant Roller Bearing: Used only in the heavy machinery and the large roller bearing is capable of taking the huge and massive load. This kind of rollers is used for stone crushers, building construction, etc.
The above list is not exhaustive. There are other bearings also available such as jewel bearings, split bearing, self-aligning bush bearing, flexure bearings and what not.
Before choosing any one of the above, figure out whether it can take both the axial and radial load. You can browse Jsbgreatbearings.com for more information on bearings and buy the best one.