spherical plain bearings
Spherical Plain Bearings
Spherical Plain Bearings are manufactured in a wide variety of materials and are designed to offer bearing solutions in almost any operating environment. SRG Bearings offers a complete line of Spherical Plain Bearings available in inch and metric. These High-Quality Spherical Plain Bearings are suitable for heavy-duty, off-highway vehicles, agricultural equipment, construction and mining and logging equipment, packaging and textile equipment, and robotics. The plain bearings come in standard industrial bore sizes from 0.5" to 12" inches, as well as metric sizes from as small as 4 to 300 mm. Custom sizes can also be ordered.
Spherical Plain Bearings (also known as “Spherical Plane Bearings” "Spherical Ball Bushing Bearings" and “Ball Bushings”) have an inner ring with a sphere convex outside surface and an outer ring with a correspondingly sphere, but concave inside surface. Their design makes them particularly suitable for bearing arrangements where alignment movements between shaft and housing have to accommodate, or where oscillating or recurrent tilting movements must be permitted at relatively slow sliding speeds.
In addition to ball and roller bearings SKF also produces a comprehensive range of spherical plain bearings and rod ends and has a choice of materials for plain and flanged bushings as well as thrust washers.
Spherical plain bearings and rod ends are produced in various designs and with various combinations of sliding contact surfaces. Each design and combination has characteristic properties which make it particularly suitable for certain applications.
To select a certain bearing type and to establish the requisite bearing size, the main factors which have to be considered are the loads, the load carrying capacity of the bearing and the expected service life. The same is true when selecting a rod end.
Angular contact spherical plain bearings have sphered sliding surfaces on the inner and in the outer ring which are arranged at an angle to the bearing axis. They are therefore particularly suitable for carrying combined (radial and axial) loads. A single angular contact spherical plain bearing can only accept axial loads acting in one direction. Under radial loads, a force acting in the axial direction is produced in the bearing which must always be opposed by an equal force acting in the opposite direction. Therefore, the bearings are usually adjusted against a second bearing. If two angular contact spherical plain bearings are arranged so that their sphere centres coincide, a spherical plain bearing is obtained which can accommodate heavy radial loads as well as heavy axial loads in both directions.
SKF angular contact spherical plain bearings are produced as standard with the sliding contact surface combination steel/PTFE composite. They are primarily intended for loads of constant direction and are maintenance-free. However, to enhance protection against corrosion and to improve sealing, it is recommended in many applications, that the space surrounding the bearing be filled with a rust inhibiting lithium base grease of consistency 2 or 3 during mounting. Such an initial lubrication also extends the effective service life of the bearing.
