Bearings of this type consist of the washers with raceways and an assembly of ball and cage. The washer that contacts the shaft is called the shaft washer, and the one attached to the housing is called the housing washer. Thrust ball bearings are designed to accommodate thrust loads at moderate speeds, for practical purposes their radial load capacity is nil. The mounting is relatively simple as the washers and the ball and cage assembly can be mounted separately as Thrust ball bearings are separable.
Bearings with a sphered housing washer can be used together with a sphered seating washer to compensate for misalignment between the support surface in the housing and the shaft as it’s important to keep the thrust bearings square with the shaft. However, the ability of the self-aligning seat to follow shaft wobble or misalignments is still quite limited.
Double direction thrust ball bearings characteristics are identical to those of the one-directional bearing, except it can accommodate axial loads acting in both directions and can thus serve to axially locate a shaft in both directions. To prevent adverse influence of centrifugal forces and gyration moments the single and double direction thrust ball bearings must be constantly subjected to a specific minimum load. |
