Tag Archive: bearings

1. Ball Bearings: Cost-Effective Quality

   May 11, 2017 6:08 pm Leave a Comment

   Throughout the years, ball and roller bearings have seen significant reductions in price while quality has improved. Several factors have played a role in this, but production process changes and material quality improvements have most significantly changed the face of the industry.

   Higher Quality, Lower Prices

   Prior to universal quality standards, the production process for ball bearings was frequently subpar; surface defects would occur due to issues in the steelmaking and rolling processes. Steel would often contain high amounts of non-metallic inclusions, disrupting the structure of the steel. Rolling defects were caused by various circumstances, such as poor-quality input billets. Inspection processes were often not sufficiently thorough. But since the introduction of industry-wide regulations and improved quality assurance processes, the ball bearing production process has seen major improvements, and products are of much higher quality.

   The advent of universal bearing grades and quality standards has also played a major role in improving the overall value of bearing products. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, for instance, before the introduction of standard specifications and guidelines, manufacturers employed their own testing procedures and quality standards. With each mill following its own guidelines, product uniformity was hard to achieve and quality varied greatly.

   Today, two main standards serve as the benchmark for ball bearing quality; steel balls are manufactured to the precision requirements set forth by ANSI/ABMA Standard 10A, while ceramic balls adhere to standard ASTM F2094. Manufactured under these standards, balls have to meet specified limits for ball diameter, roughness, and spherical form.

   With more uniform quality across the industry, purchasing and procuring agents can now easily obtain reliable, quality ball bearings at competitive, cost-efficient prices. Cheap ball bearings no longer mean poor-quality ball bearings.

   Quality Control at Action Bearing

   At Action Bearing, we take pride in supplying top-quality ball bearings for a wide range of industries, and we only carry products that adhere to strict industry guidelines. The bearing manufacturers we partner with ensure optimal product quality through rigorous physical testing, which is repeated with every change in design, material, or finish.

   For over 50 years, we’ve been providing OEM and maintenance markets worldwide with the highest quality ball and roller bearings available. To learn more about our selection of ball bearings, or to discuss the advantages of using ball bearings in your next project, contact the team today.

2. Thin Section and Miniature Precision Bearings in Robotics

   March 9, 2017 6:17 pm Leave a Comment

   Bearing Basics

   With a constant cross section, thin section bearings allow for significant space savings and overall system weight reduction — ideal advantages when designing sophisticated and critical-application products. The cross section, which is usually square, remains constant even in bearings with large bore diameters. Often used when space limitations or specific design configurations prevent the use of conventional bearings, thin section bearings allow for versatility in many applications and come in a range of contact angle designs, including radial contact, angular contact, and four-point contact.

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3. Levels of Precision – How to Get the Most Dimensional Stability from Rolling Bearings

   November 2, 2015 4:46 pm Leave a Comment

   Temperature is extremely important when choosing a bearing. Whether due to friction, electrical current, electromagnetic induction, or an extreme external environment, bearings are often required to perform in high temperature environments.  We’ve provided this quick article to help you understand the essence of what it takes for your bearing to take the heat.

   Bearings are very precise instruments, and for them to work properly, all their parts (races, rolling elements, cages) have to stay within tight engineering tolerances. For example, if the outer race were to expand too severely, the bearing could be in danger of wearing excessively, leaking lubricant, or otherwise stop performing properly.

   As a second example, if one or more of the rolling elements were to deform, the bearing would no longer run smoothly, and may even jam up and fail catastrophically. Effects like these can be experienced in high temperature environments, when the expansion is significant.

   Bearings have a finite design lifetime, as over time the steel will expand, deform or wear, impacting the bearing’s tolerances and clearances. Aging effects are normally slow and gradual; however, extreme temperatures can dramatically accelerate the bearing aging process.

   At Action Bearing we address this issue by guaranteeing all of our bearings to be dimensionally stable within certain operating temperatures. This means that as long as a bearing is not used above the maximum operating temperature, its critical dimensions will remain within specified tolerances for the bearing lifetime.

   In a nutshell, your bearing will continue to perform as your design requires. However at temperatures outside the guaranteed operating range, bearing life and performance should be expected to decrease according to the loading conditions and the operating environment.

   The table below lists our dimensionally stabilized categories divided by maximum operating temperature:

   

   No matter what your application, we are here to help. Action Bearing has years of experience providing high quality bearings to many different industries, and our technical team is here to help you choose the right bearing for your application. If you need to know if your bearing can take the heat, contact us today or visit our Catalog and Technical Toolbox webpages. These resources include information intended to help accelerate your decision-making process.

4. Levels of Precision: Choose the Right Bearing to get the Best Life for Your Application…

   4:43 pm Leave a Comment

   At Action Bearing we are fully dedicated to our customers, and take pride in making outstanding products as well as providing accurate documentation of their performance. Our bearings are engineered and manufactured with the highest levels of precision, and uphold the highest quality standards, however, no bearing lasts forever. So how can you be sure that your bearing will perform well throughout its life?

   Rolling element bearings are known for being extremely reliable, and many even outlive the machines on which they are installed.  However, several factors can shorten a rolling element bearing’s life, and load and speed are the most common causes for early failure. A load that exceeds the bearing specification can accelerate fatigue, shorten its life up to a factor of 8-10, and a speed exceeding the veering specifications can also dramatically decrease a bearing life. Other factors like extreme temperatures, vibrations, and dirt or contaminants play an important part in a bearing’s life.

   Nevertheless, if a bearing was selected correctly and used for the correct application, it will surely last for the specified lifetime (and probably longer).  Listed below are approximate values for bearing life (measured in operating hours) that you can expect for different applications: 

   • Hobbyist’s power tools: 100-150 hr
   • Professional power tools: 100-1000 hr
   • Household appliances: 200-3000 hr
   • Agricultural machinery: 500-5000 hr
   • Tractors: 5000-12000 hr
   • Cars and trucks: 800-10000 hr
   • Trucks generally have a longer bearing life by design than cars
   • Hydraulic systems: 1000-20000 hr
   • Bearings in stationary hydraulic systems generally outlast bearings in mobile hydraulic systems
   • Office and data processing machinery: 1200-16000 hr
   • Material handling equipment: 2000-18000 hr
   • Rolling mills: 2000-20000 hr
   • Compressors: 3000-20000 hr
   • Building material machinery: 5000-50000 hr
   • Crushers: 13000-40000 hr
   • Extruders: 20000-50000 hr
   • Industrial gearboxes: 20000-50000 hr
   • Textile machinery: 20000-70000 hr
   • Printing presses: 35000-100000 hr
   • Paper machinery: 75000-150000 hr

   Action Bearing is here to help you get the most out of your bearings.  For years our experienced team has been providing high quality bearings across a large span of different industries. Consult with us, and we’ll make sure your bearing lives a long, full, productive life.  For more information on which kind of bearing is best for you, visit our Catalog and Technical Toolbox web pages.