What Is a Cylindrical Roller Bearing?
Since ancient times, virtually every culture has used rollers of some type for moving heavy objects with relative ease. Whether it is logs, dowels, pieces of broomstick, or rolling pins, the cylindrical roller eliminates virtually all losses due to friction incurred when trying to slide heavy objects across a floor or over the ground. Modern cylindrical roller bearings employ this same rolling, rather than sliding, principle, and provide the same advantage over sleeve-type bearings when supporting rotating shafts and axles (such as those found on heavy equipment) as well as vehicles carrying extraordinarily heavy loads.
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Bearing types
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There are two basic types of mechanical bearings used in machinery: sleeve bearings and rolling bearings. Bronze sleeve bearings are simple and inexpensive, but tend to be limited in the shaft velocities they will support. They also have considerable coefficients of friction that may consume a large proportion of the energy available to turn the shaft. Rolling bearings, made of hardened steel, include ball bearings, needle bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, and tapered roller bearings.
Rolling bearings
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All rolling bearings are capable of higher rotational speeds than the same-sized sleeve bearings. Ball bearings can be used in extremely high-speed applications and can also handle a certain amount of sideways thrust in addition to the radial loads they bear. Tapered roller bearings employ either cylindrical or tapered rollers to additionally handle substantial amounts of sideways thrust along with their radial loading.
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Heavy loads
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Cylindrical roller bearings are the best solution for exceptionally heavy radial loads meaning heavy axles at moderate velocities and minimal sideways thrust loads. Cylindrical roller bearings have the highest rolling contact area compared to all the other types of rolling bearings.
Bearing components
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Cylindrical roller bearings consist of three main sections: The inner bearing race fits snugly on the turning shaft, or can actually be the shaft itself if the shaft metal is hard enough. The outer race is a uniform and hardened collar that fits snugly inside the bearing holder bore. Finally, there should be a sufficient number of uniform straight rollers to completely fill the space between the two races without binding together. These bearings will last almost forever if sealed, kept very clean, and lubricated with a high film strength-bearing grease.
Applications
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Ideal applications for cylindrical roller bearings are very large industrial machines such as presses, forges, conveyors, gear boxes and rolling mills. On vehicles, they are ideal axle bearings for dump trucks, cement mixers, bulldozers, load haulers, and lifts.
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