Importance, Working And Types Of Bearings

Thrust Roller Bearings | Image Resource : indiamart.com

Bearings are crucial mechanical elements. They offer smooth and friction less motion between two surfaces. Commonly, bearings are divided into two basic categories, thrust, and radial bearings. Radial bearings are found in turning shafts, while the thrust bearings support axial forces or loads. These two types of bearings are further categorised into several different bearings which include:

  • Roller,
  • Ball,
  • Split,
  • Mounted and unmounted,
  • Flange, etc.

In reality, bearings are available in a wide range of varieties as per their demand and use. One of the most common types of the bearing is the ball bearing which is used in a plethora of devices and applications. All the components, tools and bearing accessories work in various devices to offer smooth movement and to protect them from friction.

Working Of Bearings:

Basically, bearings consist of ball and surface for rolling. For efficient working, both the outside and side surface must be smooth. The ball carries the load weight and the load associated with it encourages rotation. Radial or thrust load plays important role in the working of the bearings. Generally, the thrust loads put direct stress on the bearing from a certain angle while the radial loads stress on the bearing so as to make it rotate due to tension.

Sometimes, a combination of both the thrust and radial loads put weight on the bearing.

Types of Bearings:

There are many types of bearings available in the market which is designed to handle radial or thrust loads or even both. Bearing’s ability to support the load plays a crucial role while selecting the right type of bearing for a specific task. Some of the common types of bearings are:

Ball Bearings: They are the most common type of bearings. They work best in both radial and thrust loads. However, they are designed to handle small load weights. Ball bearings fail when they are overloaded. This type of bearing is easily found in hard drives, roller blades, etc.

Roller Bearings: Unlike ball bearings, these are designed to carry heavy loads. In this type of bearing, the main roller is cylindrical. Hence, the load is spread over a huge area which allows the bearing to take on large amounts of weight. Roller bearings work best under radial loads.

Ball Thrust Bearings: They are perfect to handle the low weight and low-speed thrust loads. For instance, bar stools.

Tapered Roller Bearings: Tapered roller bearings are designed to take radial loads and big thrusts. This type of bearing is versatile in nature and hence they are widely used in vehicle hubs.

Roller Thrust Bearings: The roller thrust bearing is like a ball thrust bearing but it handles large amounts of loads and weight. Hence, thrust roller bearing is commonly found in cars to support helical gears. Spherical roller thrust bearing is very sophisticated and has good self-aligning capacity.

So, depending on the need of your application choose the best bearing for higher efficiency.