Get to Know Several Features and Benefits of Needle Thrust Bearing

Needle Thrust Bearing | Image Resource : googleusercontent.com
  Where there is minimum axial space but requires high level of stiffness, a needle roller thrust bearing is used. It comes with a form-stable cage, which helps retain and hold numerous needle rollers. Needle thrust bearings use the faces of adjoining machine parts as raceways and are smaller than other bearings to occupy minimal space.

Designs and Variants of Needle Thrust Bearing

You can find this bearing in two designs and they are “needle roller bearings and a centering flange”and “needle roller and cage thrust assemblies”. Where there are no nearby components to serve as raceways, you can have bearing washers in the assemblies.

Needle Roller and Cage Thrust Assemblies: This variant of needle roller bearings can handle only one-directional axial loads and can be used with bearing washers in case there are no adjoining components to use as raceways.

Needle Roller Bearings with a Centering Flange: Used for one-directional axial loads, this design variant comprises a “needle roller and cage thrust assembly” and a ring washer, along with a centering flange. You can have variation in design here to handle combined radial and axial loads, with open ends or closed end drawn cup bearings and needle roller bearings and machined rings.

Bearing Washers: The use of needle thrust bearings asks for bearing washers in case adjacent components are not available or cannot be used as raceways. These washers are easily available and of universal standards. They can be used as housing washers or shaft washers and are made using toughened carbon chromium steel.

Benefits and Uses of Needle Thrust Bearings

A needle thrust bearing is preferred to general bearings for it offers the following advantages.

1. Greater Load-Carrying Capacity: Though needle thrust bearings are smaller in size, they are known for handling heavier loads. Where applications demand compactness in space and design, these bearings are preferred. Moreover, they help reduce costs by allowing the use of lighter machinery.
2. Can Handle Heavy Axial and Peak Loads: The most significant feature of this bearing is its rollers having small diameter deviation in a single assembly. This design helps it to handle both heavy axial and peak loads.
3. Longer Service Life: The design allows you to relieve the roller ends slightly so that the line contact between the rollers and ring raceways is modified to avoid stress peaks. This helps give extended service life to the bearing.

With the taper roller bearing design, you can have variations in a needle thrust bearing to use in applications like machine tools, two-wheelers, cars, buses, trailers, light trucks, etc. To choose the most suitable one you can refer the needle bearing catalog, which gives all the details, including designs, series, sizes, dimensions, etc.