Spherical Plain Bearing – An Engineering Marvel to Handle Any Type of Load

Every bearing is designed for a special application, it is very usefulfor establishment of industries, however, in certain industries involving huge number of industrial application with the presence of heavy load, possibility of misalignment and moderate speed, there is specific type of bearing to be used.

Let us understand how these bearings are designed, purpose and its application.

 

Spherical Plain bearing | Image Resource : indiamart.com

Design, Purpose and Utility:

We are talking about Spherical Plain Bearing which is a special bearing and commonly used in many applicationslike CCTV, washing machine, drive shafts, railway engines, sewing machine, car suspensions, heavy application, robotics and in many of the heavy machineries for smooth function.

It is an angular rotational bearing which is designed to accommodate rod or shafts when any kind of misalignment event occurs. It is self – lubricant and also light in weight. Another feature of this bearing is that it always rotates at its own axis. The Spherical type plain bearings are comparatively free of maintenance and also suitable for many application involving swivel movement, high radial or alternating or shock load with load direction being unilateral.

Another special feature of spherical plain bearing is self-lubricating and is also resistant to corrosion. The material used for this type of bearing is nylon, steel and plastic polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) which is cheap in price. It consists of two rings the inner and outer ring which ensures the movement in axial load in particular direction. It has capacity to take heavy load as well.

Pillow Block Bearing for High Speed Application  

And Pillow Block Bearing is another type of bearing which is made up of hosing along with fixed bearing as well. The pillow block bearing is consisting of many bearing like spherical, cylindrical roller, tapered roller bearing which synchronise the application. It also handles stress and enhances speed and efficiency both to ensure smooth and speedy function. While choosing spherical bearings always consider physical dimension w.r.t. diameter of bore, length through the bore, bearing thickness as well as outside diameter.
 
On the other hand, Angular Contact Ball Bearing is perfect in tough situation. Its structure consists of raceways in outer & inner ring both. It is especially designed to accommodate applications with heavy load. This bearing type is available in different varietieslike Single row type Angular Contact ball bearing, Double row type angular contact ball bearing, four-point type Angular Contact ball bearing as per need of the application. It stimulates the load of axial and radial both. It is used in material handling, wind mills, in big machinery tool also.

Each bearing is different from each other and the differentiation is due to its functionality which enables to perform the function. The Spherical Plain bearing is unique in itself, as it can effectively work even in high tension tendency also. In industries the choice of bearing is difficult task because it directly gives impact on the application performance.