Aligning Needle Roller Bearings

Needle roller bearings are used when the load carrying capacity or accuracy of drawn cup needle roller bearings with open ends is no longer sufficient and the high load capacity of cylindrical roller bearings is not yet required.

Needle roller bearings place lower requirements on the dimensional accuracy, geometrical accuracy and hardness of the adjacent construction than needle roller bearings with open ends and with closed end.

Due to their construction, needle roller bearings of the standard types only allow slight misalignment of the bearing axis. Aligning needle roller bearings have a raceway ring with a curved outside surface and a curved support ring. As a result, they can compensate static misalignments of the bearing axis of up to 3°.

In the design of the bearing arrangement, it must be noted that aligning needle roller bearings cannot support swivel or wobble type motion.

Bearings without an inner ring are highly suitable for bearing arrangements with particularly compact radial dimensions, if the shaft raceway can be hardened and ground.

Bearings with an inner ring are used if the shaft cannot be configured as a rolling bearing raceway.