Bearings and Lubricants

Radial Bearings

Conrad or Deep-groove Bearings - These bearings are the most widely used ball bearings. In addition to radial loads, they carry substantial thrust loads at high speeds, in either direction. They require careful alignment between shaft and housing.

The ball complement of a deep-groove bearing is limited to the number of balls that can be packed into the annular space between the rings with the inner ring displaced radially. The inner ring is then snapped into place, and the retainer assembled around the balls. This limits the load-carrying ability of the bearing, since capacity is proportional to the number of balls to the 2/3 power.

Although the majority of deep-groove bearings are made to ABEC-1 specifications, higher-precision bearings are readily available. Unless the application involves high speeds or some other unusual feature, ABEC-1 bearings normally suffice. Additional expense for higher-grade bearings is considerable.

Maximum Capacity or Filling Notch Bearings - These bearings have about 20 to 40% more radial load capacity than deep-groove bearings. The increased capacity comes from additional balls inserted through the filling notch. Except for the filling notch and the extra balls, they are geometrically identical to deep-groove bearings.

But the same filling notch that permits an increased radial load cuts thrust capacity to about one-third that of deep-groove bearings. At higher thrust loads, balls start to contact the notch. For the same reason, tolerance to misalignment is considerably less than that of deep-groove bearings.

Radial Bearings