10 Cast Net: Needle Bearings

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Needle Bearings

A needle roller bearing is a bearing which uses small cylindrical rollers. They are used to reduce friction of a rotating surface. Needle bearings have a large surface area that is in contact with the bearing outer surfaces compared to ball bearings. Additionally there is less added clearance (difference between the diameter of the shaft and the diameter of the bearing) so they are much more compact. The typical structure consists of an a needle cage which orients and contains the needle rollers, the needle rollers themselves, and an outer race(sometimes housing itself).

Radial needle bearings are cylindrical and use rollers parallel to the axis of the shaft. Thrust needle bearings are flat and use a radial pattern of needles. Full complement bearings have solid inner and outer rings and rib-guided cylindrical rollers. Since these bearings have the largest possible number of rolling elements, they have extremely high radial load carrying capacity and are suitable for particularly compact designs.