General Selection Process of Thrust Roller Bearing for Various Applications

Thrust Roller Bearing | Image Resource : shutterstock.com

When it comes to the construction of rolling bearings, they are designed to have outer and inner ring raceways, cylindrical rolling elements and cages. The rollers are set between the raceways to guide and help a smooth rolling movement. Rolling bearings are generally classified into radial and thrust bearings depending on the acting load direction. Unlike radial bearings, thrust bearings can accommodate only thrust loads.

Under the thrust roller bearings, you can find further classification of them based on the shape of the rollers. Some of the widely used roller thrust bearings are given below.

Cylindrical Roller Thrust Bearings: These bearings are used to support heavy axial loads, as well as peak loads though they are not meant to handle any radial load. Cylindrical roller thrust bearings need little axial space and they are highly rigid. By choosing them, you can have design variants such as bearings with one- and two-row rollers and single and double direction bearings. When single-direction bearings help support axial loads in one direction, the double-direction ones can handle axial loads in both directions.

Tapered Roller Thrust Bearings: Featured to have tapered rollers, with tapered inner and outer raceway washers, these bearings are good enough to handle a combination of acting radial and axial loads simultaneously. The rolling action in the bearing is facilitated by the projection lines of the rings, which converge at a “common point on the bearing axis”.

These bearings are available in several designs and variants and the general ones are the single row taper roller bearing and double row taper roller bearing. They help handle heavy axial and radial loads in one and both directions respectively. The other design variant is the taper lock bearing to manage the loosening of the inner ring and taper sleeve during the operation.  

Spherical Roller Thrust Bearings: Known for their asymmetrical rollers and spherical raceways, these bearings can support both acting axial loads and radial loads simultaneously in one direction. The other feature is they are self-aligning and can handle misalignment.

How to Choose a Suitable Thrust Roller Bearing for an Application?

The steps given below help you select an appropriate bearing for any application.

• Figure out the load and determine the bearing speed.
• Check and establish whether the alignment is accurate between the bearing seating. If not, you need to look for a spherical roller bearing that can accommodate misalignment.
• For rotational movement at high speeds, bearings having extended life service is suitable. You need to find a right one by calculating its ‘C’ value.
• In case of applications under extreme conditions, look for a bearing that has a self-lubrication system.
• Finally, check the mounting and dismounting instructions.

The above information will help you choose the most suitable thrust roller bearing for an application.