Bearings

Bearing Parts

Bearings

How Bearings Work

Have you ever wondered how things like inline
skate wheels and electric motors spin so
smoothly and quietly? The answer can be found
in a neat little machine called a bearing.
The bearing makes many of the machines we
use every day possible. Without bearings, we
would be constantly replacing parts that wore
out from friction. In this article, we'll learn how
bearings work, look at some different kinds of
bearings and explain their common uses, and
explore some other interesting uses of bearings.

How Bearings Work

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 The Basics
The concept behind a bearing is very simple:
Things roll better than they slide. The wheels on
your car are like big bearings. If you had
something like skis instead of wheels, your car
would be a lot more difficult to push down the
road. That is because when things slide, the
friction between them causes a force that tends
to slow them down. But if the two surfaces can
roll over each other, the friction is greatly
reduced.

 Bearings reduce friction by providing

smooth metal balls or rollers, and a
smooth inner and outer metal surface for
the balls to roll against. These balls or
rollers "bear" the load, allowing the device
to spin smoothly.

The bearings that support the shafts of motors and pulleys are
subject to a radial load.

 Bearing Loads
Bearings typically have to deal with two kinds of
loading, radial and thrust. Depending on where
the bearing is being used, it may see all radial
loading, all thrust loading or a combination of
both.
The bearings in the electric motor and the pulley
pictured above face only a radial load. In this
case, most of the load comes from the tension in
the belt connecting the two pulleys

The bearings in this stool are subject to a thrust

load.

The bearing above is like the one in a barstool. It is loaded

purely in thrust, and the entire load comes from the weight
of the person sitting on the stool.

The bearings in a car wheel are subject to both thrust and radial loads.

 The bearing above is like the one in the

hub of your car wheel. This bearing has to
support both a radial load and a thrust
load. The radial load comes from the
weight of the car, the thrust load comes
from the cornering forces when you go
around a turn.

Types of Bearings
Types of Bearings
There are many types of bearings, each
used for different purposes. These include
ball bearings, roller bearings, ball thrust
bearings, roller thrust bearings and
tapered roller thrust bearings.

Ball Bearings
Ball Bearings
Ball bearings, as shown,
are probably the most
common type of bearing.
They are found in
everything from inline
skates to hard drives.
These bearings can
handle both radial and
thrust loads, and are
usually found in
applications where the
load is relatively small.

Ball Bearings
In a ball bearing, the load is transmitted
from the outer race to the ball, and from
the ball to the inner race. Since the ball is
a sphere, it only contacts the inner and
outer race at a very small point, which
helps it spin very smoothly. But it also
means that there is not very much contact
area holding that load, so if the bearing is
overloaded, the balls can deform or
squish, ruining the bearing.

Roller Bearings
Roller bearings like the one illustrated below
are used in applications like conveyer belt
rollers, where they must hold heavy radial loads.
In these bearings, the roller is a cylinder, so the
contact between the inner and outer race is not
a point but a line. This spreads the load out over
a larger area, allowing the bearing to handle
much greater loads than a ball bearing.
However, this type of bearing is not designed to
handle much thrust loading.

 A variation of this
type of bearing,
called a needle
bearing, uses
cylinders with a
very small
diameter. This
allows the
bearing to fit into
tight places.

Ball Thrust Bearing

Ball thrust bearings like the one shown
below are mostly used for low-speed
applications and cannot handle much
radial load. Barstools and Lazy Susan
turntables use this type of bearing.

Ball Thrust Bearing

Roller Thrust Bearing

Roller thrust bearings like the one
illustrated below can support large thrust
loads. They are often found in gearsets
like car transmissions between gears, and
between the housing and the rotating
shafts. The helical gears used in most
transmissions have angled teeth -- this
causes a thrust load that must be
supported by a bearing.

Roller Thrust Bearing

Tapered Roller Bearings

Tapered roller bearings can support
large radial and large thrust loads.
Tapered roller bearings are used in car
hubs, where they are usually mounted in
pairs facing opposite directions so that
they can handle thrust in both directions.

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Cutaway view of (left) a

spherical roller thrust
bearing and (right) a
radial tapered roller
bearing

Spherical Roller Bearings

Spherical roller bearings
use rollers that are
thicker in the middle and
thinner at the ends; the
race is shaped to match.
Spherical roller bearings
can thus adjust to
support misaligned loads

Caged radial ball bearings

Earthquake-Proof Buildings
The new San
Francisco
International
Airport uses many
advanced building
technologies to
help it withstand
earthquakes. One
of these
technologies
involves giant ball
bearings.

Pillow Block Bearings

Plain Bearings
A plain bearing is a bearing which carries
load by sliding. A plain bearing is often
called a 'bushing' or a 'babbitt' or 'journal
bearing'. Plain bearings are very widely
used and appear in most kinds of
equipment, notably as crankshaft and
connecting rod bearings in automobile
piston engines.

Journal Bearings