Spherical plain bearing – specifications and uses

The spherical bearings are very useful in applications which require alignment movements to be accommodated between the housing and the shaft as well as in operations where relatively low-speed oscillation or recurrent tilting movements have to be facilitated. 

Spherical Plain Bearings 

You can find a wide variety of spherical plain bearings in the market as well as on online portals of leading bearing suppliers and manufacturers. Hence it is very important to know what the options available are and which type of spherical bearing is best suited for your application. Spherical bearings are available in different combinations of sliding contact surface i.e. the sliding outer and inner rings are made up of different materials.

Types of spherical bearings

Mainly there are two types of spherical plain bearings available in the market, namely the maintenance free and the spherical plain bearings that require maintenance. The spherical bearings that require maintenance comprise of a steel-on-steel structure to ensure greater durability and enhanced load carrying capacity. 

In order to reduce wear and tear by friction, the surfaces of this type of spherical bearing are treated with phosphate coating and molybdenum disulphate lubrication. These types of bearings are most suitable for applications which require a high strength of contact surfaces so as to handle heavy loads in alternating directions. 

You should also go for spherical plain bearings which need regular lubrication for arrangements which deal with heavy static loads or load shocks. This type of bearings is not only worn and tear and corrosion resistant but are also widely used for their heavy load carrying capacity.  

On the other hand maintenance, free spherical plain bearing is best suited for applications which require prolonged usage and involve comparatively lower load carrying capacity. The maintenance-free bearings are best suited for situations where the absence of lubrication or inadequate lubrication is a common issue.

Materials and design

The steel on steel spherical bearings that require maintenance are available in several variants ranging from steel-on–steel angular contact ball bearings, double fracture, double direction thrust, thrust loading, extended inner and high misalignment spherical plain bearings.

On the other hand, the maintenance-free spherical plain bearings are made of a different combination of materials such as carbon steel, hardened carbon chromium steel, copper alloy or hardened stainless steel. The sliding surfaces placed between maintenance free spherical bearings may be made of PTFE composite, hard chromium plating, PTFE plastic or PTFE fabric so as to minimize wear and tear due to friction. 

You may check out the catalog of leading manufacturers and suppliers of spherical plain bearings to get an idea of the price and models available. You may also go through the safety standards followed by leading manufacturers, online to ensure the high quality and durability of bearing pillow block and other spherical bearings.