Many Types of Cylindrical Bearings for Different Applications
With the cylindrical roller bearings being the most common component in a machine, they are available in several designs, dimensions, sizes and series. Used to handle heavy radial loads at high speeds, these bearings are designed to have some factors that help enhance their performance and service life. A few of the factors to name are:
Cylindrical Bearings | Image Resource : shutterstock.com
Rollers with Logarithmic Profile: The load distribution in the roller surface contact area is decided by the roller profile, which is designed to have a logarithmic profile. With this the stress is distributed equally and the chances for misalignment is reduced.
Integral flanges for roller guidance: The inner or outer rings of cylindrical bearings have open flanges to guide the rollers. The crowned roller ends and flange design help form a lubricant film, which minimizes friction during the operation.
Optimal roller movements: The contact surface area of the rollers has surface finish to enhance the development of “hydrodynamic lubricant film”, which optimizes the roller movements to offer improved operational reliability.
Standardized components: Cylindrical bearings are made to have international standards in terms of designs and sizes. The components of these bearings are therefore interchangeable to help easy maintenance.
These bearings are recognized for their different types to help accommodate heavy radial loads at high or moderate speed. Unlike spherical plain bearings, cylindrical bearings cannot support serious misalignment but can reduce it.
Various Types of Cylindrical Bearings and their Uses
Their availability in different types has helped cylindrical roller bearings become the most sought-after mechanical components in the industry. Some of the common types of cylindrical roller bearings are:
Single row cylindrical roller bearings: They are the most widely used bearings for the single row bearings are easy to mount or dismount. You can easily separate the ring and the roller, as well as the cage assembly. During the operation when the bearing needs to be separated for the inner and outer rings to have interference fit, it is easy to have the single row bearing.
Double row cylindrical roller bearings: Where the application asks for handling high loads, cylindrical bearings, with the second row of rollers are used. With the optimized roller end and flange contact surface area, this type of bearing promotes the formation of a lubricant film to minimize friction.
Single row full complement cylindrical bearings: The purpose of this bearing is to support the axial displacement by locating the shaft axially. The full complement cylindrical bearings come under heavy dimension series for applications with heavy loads at slow speeds.
Double row full complement cylindrical bearings: These bearings are generally non-separable and come grooves and holes for lubrication. They are used to handle the axial displacement of the shaft in both directions.
Where the spherical ball bearing is not enough, the cylindrical bearings are used to help with various heavy applications due to their flexibility in designs.