Bearing Loads

Bearings typically have to deal with two kinds of loading, radial and thrust. Depending on where the bearing is being used, it may see all radial loading, all thrust loading or a combination of both. The bearings in the electric motor and the pulley pictured above face only a radial load. In this case, most of the load comes from the tension in the belt connecting the two pulleys.

The bearings in this stool are subject to a thrust load. The bearing above is like the one in a barstool. It is loaded purely in thrust, and the entire load comes from the weight of the person sitting on the stool.

The bearings in a car wheel are subject to both thrust and radial loads. The bearing above is like the one in the hub of your car wheel. This bearing has to support both a radial load and a thrust load. The radial load comes from the weight of the car, the thrust load comes from the cornering forces when you go around a turn.

Types of Bearings
There are many types of bearings, each used for different purposes. These include ball bearings, roller bearings, ball thrust bearings, roller thrust bearings and tapered roller thrust bearings. Ball bearings, as shown below, are probably the most common type of bearing. They are found in everything from inline skates to hard drives. These bearings can handle both radial and thrust loads, and are usually found in applications where the load is relatively small. In a ball bearing, the load is transmitted from the outer race to the ball, and from the ball to the inner race. Since the ball is a sphere, it only contacts the inner and outer race at a very small point, which helps it spin very smoothly. But it also means that there is not very much contact area holding that load, so if the bearing is overloaded, the balls can deform or squish, ruining the bearing.
Ball Bearings

Roller bearings like the one illustrated below are used in applications like conveyer belt rollers, where they must hold heavy radial loads. In these bearings, the roller is a cylinder, so the contact between the inner and outer race is not a point but a line. This spreads the load out over a larger area, allowing the bearing to handle much greater loads than a ball bearing. However, this type of bearing is not designed to handle much thrust loading. A variation of this type of bearing, called a needle bearing, uses cylinders with a very small diameter. This allows the bearing to fit into tight places.

Roller Bearings

Cutaway view of a roller bearing

Ball Thrust Bearing

Ball thrust bearings like the one shown below are mostly used for low-speed applications and cannot handle much radial load. Barstools and Lazy Susan turntables use this type of bearing.

Ball thrust bearing

Roller thrust bearings like the one illustrated below can support large thrust loads. They are often found in gearsets like car transmissions between gears, and between the housing and the rotating shafts. The helical gears used in most transmissions have angled teeth -- this causes a thrust load that must be supported by a bearing.

Roller thrust bearing

Tapered Roller Bearings

Tapered roller bearings can support large radial and large thrust loads.

Tapered roller bearings are used in car hubs, where they are usually mounted in pairs facing opposite directions so that they can handle thrust in both directions.

Some Interesting Uses

There are several types of bearings, and each has its own interesting uses, including magnetic bearings and giant roller bearings.
Magnetic Bearings

Some very high-speed devices, like advanced flywheel energy storage systems, use magnet bearings. These bearings allow the flywheel to float on a magnetic field created by the bearing. Some of the flywheels run at speeds in excess of 50,000 revolutions per minute (rpm). Normal bearings with rollers or balls would melt down or explode at these speeds. The magnetic bearing has no moving parts, so it can handle these incredible speeds.
Giant Roller Bearings

Probably the first use of a bearing was back when the Egyptians were building the pyramids. They put round logs under the heavy stones so that they could roll them to the building site.

This method is still used today when large, very heavy objects like the Cape Hatteras lighthouse need to be moved.
Earthquake-Proof Buildings

The new San Francisco International Airport uses many advanced building technologies to help it withstand earthquakes. One of these technologies involves giant ball bearings. Click on "Earthquake!" to see the earthquake bearing support system at work. The 267 columns that support the weight of the airport each ride on a 5-foot-diameter (1.5-meter) steel ball bearing. The ball rests in a concave base that is connected to the ground. In the event of an earthquake, the ground can move 20 inches (51 cm) in any direction. The columns that rest on the balls move somewhat less than this as they roll around in their bases, which helps isolate the building from the motion of the ground. When the earthquake is over, gravity pulls the columns back to the center of their bases.

Dukung Kinerja Mesin dengan Bearing

Reabilitas dari mesin memegang peranan yang penting dalam dunia industri. Bearing memerankan peranan dalam mendukung keandalan dan performa mesin. Terdapat hubungan yang sangat dekat antara pengembangan mesin dan performa bearing. Selain itu kerusakan mesin

sering dihubungkan dengan kerusakan bearing. Laporan penelitian yang telah dilakukan oleh Schoen pada tahun 1995 menunjukkan hasil berbagai penelitian menunjukkan bahwa permasalahan bearing menyumbang 40 % terhadap kerusakan mesin. Faktor utama dari kerusakan bearing adalah kotoran dan korosi. Kotoran dan material asing sering mengkontaminasi bearing bersamaan dengan pelumasan bearing. Sedangkan korosi dari bearing dihasilkan dari keberadaan air, acid, kurangnya pelumasan, dan kekurang hati-hatian saat menyimpan serta pemasangan bearing. Selain itu permasalahan bearing juga dapat disebabkan oleh pemukulan bearing pada saat pemasangan bearing di shaft. Pemukulan ini akan menghasilkan kerusakan fisik pada alur bearing yang mendorong kerusakan awal bearing, seperti yang telah dilaporkan oleh R.F Sciefer di tahun 2004. Melihat hasil penelitian yang telah dilakukan oleh Schoen et. all dan R.F Sciefer et. all. Keberadaan kotoran di bearing memang ditaklah diinginkan mulai dari penyimpanan bearing, pemasangan dan perawatannya harus benar-benar terjaga. Sampai dengan kemungkinan terjadi korosi pada bearing pun menjadi hal yang tidak diinginkan guna mendukung umur bearing yang lama sehingga mendukung kinerja mesin.