A General Overview Of Angular Contact Ball Bearings

Angular contact ball bearings are a type of rolling element bearing. Much like its name implies, rolling element bearings typically use a ball or roller to carry a load. Roller element bearings can be of multiple types, including ball bearings, tapered bearings, spherical bearings, cylindrical bearings and needle bearings. Each type of bearing has its own features, pros, and cons. No matter the type of ball bearing you are using, their key goal shall be to reduce rotational friction. These bearings must also have the capacity to support both axial and radial (or thrust) forces.

For reference, bearings move around on a fixed axis. Based on its application, a bearing might be subject to axial force or radial force, or even both. An axial force is applied parallel to the axis, while on other hand; a radial force is applied perpendicular to the axis. As not all types of bearings are able to support both such forces, ball bearings are known to be pretty versatile, and have emerged as one of the most extensively used types of rolling element bearing.

Angular bearing or angular contact bearings are considered to be perfect for clutches, electric motors, pumps, gearboxes, and other high-speed applications. These bearings are most commonly used in the industries associated with wind energy, machine tools, and machine handling. Angular contact bearings are also extensively used in steel mills. Even though such bearings have the capacity to accept thrust loads in only one direction, they can be manufactured at varying contact angles, typically between 0 and 45 degrees, for the purpose of transferring the load acting upon the bearing.

Angular contact bearings are designed in such a manner that a contact angle between the balls and the races is formed when the bearing is in use. This is a key design feature of such bearings. One or both of the ring races of the bearings must additionally have one shoulder relieved or higher than the other. To see to it that the angular contact bearings do function in the proper manner, they have to be assembled with a thrust load. There are three prime parts that make up the angular contact bearings, its rings, cage, and ball material.

• Single row angular contact ball bearing: These bearings can accommodate axial loads only in a single direction. Such bearings are generally adjusted against a second bearing. Its bearing rings have a lower and upper shoulder that is non-separable.

• Double row angular contact ball bearing: Such bearings correspond to two single row angular contact ball bearing that are arranged back-to-back.

• Four-point contact ball bearing: This basically is a radial single row angular contact ball bearing with raceways that are particularly designed to support axial loads in both directions. A limited radial load can also be supported for any given axial load. These bearings are separable, which means the cage assembly and the outer ring with the ball can be mounted separately from the two inner ring halves.