Anti Friction Bearing

Antifriction bearings minimize friction by removing any possible sliding between bearing surfaces and replacing all contacts with rolling interfaces. They substitute balls or rollers for a hydrodynamic or hydrostatic fluid film to carry loads with reduced friction. They utilize a separator to space the hardened rolling elements apart. The Anti-Friction Bearing Manufacturers Association Standards (AFBMA) provides standardized dimensions, tolerances and fits of ball and roller bearings. Antifriction bearings can be categorized to three different configurations: axial ball, roller and thrust bearings. They are more desirable than plain bearing due to their lower friction and reduced lubrication requirement. However, the life of antifriction bearing is limited by the fatigue life of the material they are made of and the type of lubricant being used. The types of antifriction bearing are group by the shape of the rolling element and they are ball bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, tapered roller bearings, and needle roller bearings. There are variations within each type of bearings and only the most commonly used ones are discussed below.

Taper Roller Bearings Taper roller bearings consists of two main units, a cup and a cone. The cup is on the outer race whereas the cone consists of inner race, the separator and compliment of taper rollers. The taper rollers are guided by the high load on the inner race. The taper roller bearings are manufactured with interchangeable cups and cone on the shaft separately. These bearings are capable of carrying both the radial and axial loads and permit fine adjustment for end play. Greater care is required to ensure the proper alignment of bearings and maintenance of proper axial clearance is essential to avoid bearing failure. Due to more development in the design of the taper roller bearings, these are also available with 2 rows and 4 rows.

Cylindrical Roller Bearings In this type of bearings, the rollers race tracks are essentially cylindrical, however they may be ground slightly curved in order to achieve thereby small degree of flexibility. The rollers are guided between two lips on either the inner race or the outer race. Other types provided with either no lip, one lip or two lips, according to the function which the bearing has to perform. Ball Bearings have a point contact on the races whereas all types of cylindrical roller bearings have a line contact. Due to line contact the cylindrical roller bearings have a very high radial load carrying capacity as compared to ball bearings of the same size. Due to their separable design, cylindrical roller bearings are more convenient for mountings than ball bearings.

Self Aligning Spherical Roller Bearings This type of bearing consists of spherical outer race and inner race with two tracks, a cage, and a complement of spherical shaped rollers. Just like double row self aligning ball bearings too are not sensitive to misalignment and they can adjust themselves to shaft deflections. Due to the principle, sizes and shaft of rollers and accuracy with which they are guided these bearings have un axial capacity. The design of this bearing permits radial load and heavy thrust load in either direction.