Ball Bearing Rollers and Their High Usage in Industrial Sectors

Posted by aniket vichare on December 3rd, 2019

Rolling bearings are largely used in every industry for the high flexibility and versatility they provide. In a way, any type of machinery or equipment—from household appliances and automotive components to construction, defense and aerospace equipment — has a bearing to guide and support the oscillating machine components, such as wheels, axles and shafts, with minimal friction and shift loads between these components.

The bearings are generally classified into two types: ball bearings and roller bearings. Both of these bearings are different in a way they make contact with the raceways. When the ball bearings are known to make point contact with the raceway washers, the roller bearings make line contact with the raceways. The contact point in the ball bearing becomes an elliptical area, while that in the roller bearing becomes rectangular in shape, with increasing load acting on the bearing.

Though ball bearings can handle high speeds due to small contact area, their load carrying capacity is limited. The roller bearings accommodate heavy loads due to the larger contact area and high friction. Nevertheless, they handle it at low speeds.

Why Are Ball Bearing Rollers in High Demand?

Bearings, irrespective of any type, are of high demand and it is going to increase in the coming years. Roller bearings predominantly find their place in most of the applications in industrial sectors. Automobile engineering asks for the advanced versions of roller thrust bearings such as the cylindrical roller thrust bearings, needle roller thrust bearings and tapered roller thrust bearings.

There are other sectors like construction, mining, agriculture, aerospace and robotics, where you can find the usage of thrust roller bearings such as a spherical roller thrust bearing and cylindrical roller thrust bearing. With the increase in demand for rolling bearings, there is a lot of research conducted for the improvement in designs and as a result, several design variants in standard sizes, dimensions, class clearance and series are developed for easy interchangeability.

There are smart bearings which are developed using advanced technology and they have sensor units. Some critical applications demand bearings to support extreme conditions. Consequently, the advanced lubrication technology allows the bearing unit to have a self-lubricating system, with bores and holes that allow continuous lubrication at certain intervals.

There is also a lot of focus on using bearings for solving environmental issues, where several sustainable practices are implements to meet the demand in this sector. The wind energy generation is the other sector where specialized bearings are used to increase energy production in a cost-effective way.

In short, the use of ball bearing rollers are wide and varied and it is advisable to learn the inherent features of various types of bearings to meet your requirement.

Author Bio: Aniket Vichare is an expert in providing ball bearing rollers solutions to customers. He has been working in this field for the past two decades and has wide knowledge of different requirements of customers.