STEEL ROLLING BEARINGS AND SLIDING BEARINGS

Rolling bearings are made up of two rings, inner and outer, with raceways for the rolling elements, balls or rollers, a cage to separate the rolling elements and watertight or metal shields according to the requirements of each application.

The most commonly used components in bearing production are:

• Inner and outer rings,through-hardened 100Cr6 rolling elements. This confers a hardness of 62 +/- 3 HRC.
• Cages can be made of pressed sheet metal, glass fibre reinforced polyamide 6.6, solid brass, bakelite cloth and other more specific materials for each application.
• Watertight shields widely used in NBR. Viton shields are used for temperatures over 90/100 °C in continuous operation.
• Metal shields: metal strips fastened to the outer ring that do not slide.
• Rolling elements can come in different shapes.
  
  • Balls can be made of different materials, 100Cr6 steel balls, ceramic balls and many other special materials. They are selected according to their rated diameter and allow different precision categories.
  • Rollers can come in different types, cylindrical rollers, tapered rollers, barrel rollers and needle rollers. Typically, these parts are made of 100Cr6 special steels too, but can also be made of other special materials such as ceramic. All rolling elements are selected and graded into precision classes.
• The lubricant plays an essential role in determining bearing lifetime. Its function is to create a film between the raceways and the rolling elements, improving the bearing’s friction coefficient and thus avoiding overheating and possible stripping of the raceways, which would have an irreversible effect on the bearing.
  Lubricants, oils and greases are chosen according to specific application requirements.