Many Features of Cylindrical Bearings and Their Use in Industry

Bearings help smooth running of machines by reducing friction while supporting heavy loads. There are different types of bearings to suit specific requirements and among them cylindrical bearings are those that are designed to handle heavy radial loads at high speeds. A cylindrical bearing is available in several designs, sizes, dimensions and series. Nevertheless, you can find most of them as a single-row bearing with a cage. Other than this, there are single- and double-row full complement bearings and they come without a cage.

Cylindrical Bearings | Image Resource : shutterstock.com

The cylindrical roller bearings have the rollers making line contact with surfaces of the raceways and this makes them accommodate heavy radial loads during high-speed operation. The bearing comes as a separable unit so the assembly and disassembly are relatively easy though there needs a shrink fit of the inner or outer ring.

What Makes Cylindrical Bearings Distinctive?

The cylindrical bearings, with a cage are used in applications that ask for handling heavy radial loads in high speeds. They support rapid accelerations too. Where a bearing has a maximum number of rollers, it helps support heavy radial loads at moderate speeds. Here are some of the factors that make cylindrical bearings quite unique.

Crowned rollers to prevent edge stresses: It is the roller profile that decides the stress distribution in the contact area of the raceway. Consequently, the roller profiles in the cylindrical bearings are crowned or have logarithmic profile to reduce edge stresses or to dispense loads equally along the raceways.  This helps extend the bearing life due to reduced stress peaks. The other benefits of the crowned rollers are they minimize shaft deflection and are less sensitive to misalignment.

Flange contact area for lubrication: The rollers in the cylindrical bearings are guided by the integral flanges on the inner or outer ring. These flanges are designed to intersect at a defined angle. This, along with the crowned roller end and surface finish, helps form a lubricant film that results in minimizing frictional heat and thrust.

Enhanced operational reliability: The roller contact surfaces are designed to have a surface finish that helps maximize the lubricant film formation so that the rolling movements of the rollers are optimized. This promotes operational reliability of the bearing.

Standardized components: The cylindrical bearing comes in separable components of same size and this makes it easily interchangeable. The rings and raceways and a cage are available in standard sizes, series and dimensions to mount easily.

Use of Cylindrical Bearings in Industry

Unlike the spherical plain bearings, cylindrical bearings do not support both radial and axial loads. They are generally found in conveyor-belt rollers where heavy radial loads at high operational speed need to be handled. The design of the sliding surface is the same in a cylindrical bearing, except in that of spherical bearings like the spherical ball bearing, to help reduce friction.