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How-To Guide: Proper Lubrication of Miniature & Instrument Ball Bearings
Bearing lubrication is an essential element of bearing selection.  Proper lubricant can reduce friction, prevent bearing wear, protect bearing surfaces from corrosion, and carry away excess heat from bearing operation.  Pacamor Kubar Bearings(PKB), selects only bearing approved and tested oils and greases for our wide variety of lubricant options.  Bearings operate on a very thin film of lubricant which must be maintained, or replaced, to ensure that maximum bearing life is achieved.

Proper selection, application, and maintenance are vital in maximizing bearing life.  Using the proper lubrication in the bearing will reduce friction and wear.  This is achieved by creating a hydrodynamic film of appropriate thickness and strength to support the load while separating the balls from the raceway.

 

How Does Lubrication Impact Bearing Life?

Bearing lubrication prevents against metal to metal contact. It also minimizes retainer wear by reducing friction. Proper lubricant will conduct heat away from the bearing. Operational conditions such as temperature, loads, speed, torque, and environment determine the lube appropriate for the application.

 

Should I choose Oil, Grease, or Dry-Film Lubricant for My Application?

Oils are used where low bearing friction torque is a primary concern. Grease may provide longer operating life and resist lubricant loss due to centrifugal forces at higher speeds. Dry-film lubricant, such as Dicronite, is often appropriate for vacuum environments or other conditions where wet lube is not an option. Pacamor Kubar Bearings(PKB) offers bearing lubrication in grease form, oil lubricants, and solid dry film lubricants.

*You can find more info. on Dicronite, here.

What is Wettability and Why is it Important?

Wettability is the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface.  A bearing that is contaminated with two different surface treatments (intentional or unintentional contamination by other lubricants, soaps, detergents, hand cream, food products, etc), could result in a non-wettable condition on the raceway.  In simplest terms, think about driving a car on the highway and the weather turns stormy.  Rain pours onto the highway, mixing with the gas, oil, rubber, and other debris that was already coating the road.  The road becomes very slippery in some places and not as slippery in others.  The automobile’s tires slip and then gain traction and then slip again, on the differently lubricated surfaces of the road.

When Should Bearings be Re-Lubed?

Bearings should be re-lubed at the recommendation of the bearing manufacturer, when the bearings have been subjected to temperature conditions outside of the recommended temperature range, if the bearings have become contaminated, if the original packaging has become damaged, if you’re unsure of the lubricant’s expiration date, if there is any question about the quality, condition, or type of lubricant in the bearings, or if the bearing lubrication appears to have separated, discolored, or otherwise changed appearance.

 

Can I Wash out the Lubrication and Install New Lube?

Many 440C Stainless Steel Bearings that are used in Aerospace, Medical, and other applications can be cleaned and re-lubricated, in proper clean room conditions and by properly trained personnel.  Improper handling can result in cross contamination, problems with wettability on balls & bearing races, or ball & raceway damage, as well as broken, cracked, lost or otherwise unusable retainers, seals, shields, or wires. PKB provides bearing wash and re-lube services, for many aerospace OEM’s and authorized re-sellers, in our factory clean room.

PKB maintains an extensive inventory of popular lubricant options.  Dry-film lubricants are also available upon request.

For further assistance with bearing selection and design, please feel free to contact our engineering team.

See our Bearing Installation Guide & Bearing Handling Practices pages for more information about proper handling installation of the PKB bearing into your device. Be sure to visit our Shaft and Housing Fits page for detailed information about this topic.

 

Other Recent Blog Topics:

• See our Shaft and Housing Fits page for a detailed chart and more information about this topic.
• See our Bearing Handling Practices blog, for more information about proper handling installation of PKB bearing, for improved bearing performance and life.
• See our Bearing Installation Guide page for more information about proper handling installation of PKB bearings into your device.

For further assistance with bearing selection and design, please feel free to contact us at sales@pacamor.com

 

Pacamor Kubar Bearings manufactures DFARS approved FAA TSO-C149 Aircraft Bearings in our ISO 9001:2015 certified factory in Troy, NY.

Pacamor Kubar Bearings(PKB) is continuing our HOW-TO GUIDE series with some suggestions for selecting the proper bearing fit on a shaft or in a housing.  We hope this will help you to maximize bearing life and performance.

How-To Guide: Choosing the Best Fit between the Bearing & Shaft, or Housing

Planning for proper fit between the ball bearing and the shaft or housing is as important as bearing design and cleanliness. Improper bearing fits or incorrect installation can damage the bearing assembly. 

This guide is for establishing shaft and bearing fits for miniature and instrument bearings when the expansion coefficients of the shaft and housing are similar or when the operating temperature differential between them is nominal. In other conditions, modification in fits and internal clearance may be required. See our Bearing Installation Guide & Bearing Handling Practices pages for more information about proper handling installation of the PKB bearing into your device. Be sure to visit our Shaft and Housing page for a detailed chart and more information about this topic.

 

Some Tips:

• Within the assembled mechanism, the fit of the ball bearing on its mating components is vital to maximizing bearing life. 
• If the fit is too loose, the bearings slide around on the shaft, eliminating the advantages gained by selecting a ball bearing in the first place. 
• If the fit is too tight, the bearing integrity may be compromised by reduction of radial play in the assembly. 
• The perfect fit enables bearings to run at peak performance for maximized end-product life. 
• There are three main types of shaft and housing fits. 
  • A loose fit is when the bore of the inner ring is slightly larger than the outer shaft diameter. 
  • A line-to-line assembly is when the bore of the inner ring of the bearing and the outer diameter of the shaft are the same. 
  • With a tight fit, the bore of the inner ring of the bearing is slightly smaller than the outer shaft diameter. Tight fits are also called interference or press fits, because bearings in these assemblies are pressed onto shafts.
• Slightly loose shaft-to-housing fits are suitable for most applications, while line-to-line fits often provide the best performance. 
• If bearings are assembled on a shaft that is too large (creating a press fit) the inner ring may stretch slightly. When this occurs, the bearing’s radial play can be diminished or even eliminated altogether.
• See our Shaft and Housing Fits page for a detailed chart and more information about this topic.
• See our Bearing Handling Practices page for more information about proper handling of PKB bearing, for improved bearing performance and life. 
• See our Bearing Installation Guide page for more information about proper installation of PKB bearings into your device. 

For further assistance with bearing selection and design, please feel free to contact sales@pacamor.com

 

Pacamor Kubar Bearings manufactures DFARS-approved FAA TSO-C149 Aircraft Bearings in our ISO 9001:2015 certified factory in Troy, NY. 

Award Winning Defense Supplier

Four NEW Product Lines To more fully support the needs of our country’s defense programs, Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB) has expanded its ball bearing factory capabilities with four important new product lines. PKB is now producing Full-Complement Ball Bearings, Thin-Section Ball Bearings, Separable Angular Contact Ball Bearings, and Non-separable Angular Contact Bearings alongside such legacy bearing products as Radial Ball Bearings, Cryogenic Ball Bearings, Metric Ball Bearings, FAA TSO-C149 Aircraft Bearings, and Specialty Ball Bearings.  

 

 

All of PKB’s ball bearings, including FAA TSO-C149 Aircraft Bearings, are appropriately DFARS-approved and Domestically Manufactured at the ISO9001:2015 & AS9100D Quality Certified Factory in Troy, NY.   

Ed Osta, President of Pcamor, stated, “Product quality from PKB is excellent. We’re a very customer focused business.  Customers have made it known that these four products are desirable to them. Our customers are our greatest asset, and our existence depends on responding to their ever changing needs. These four new products that we’re introducing today are a direct result of specific customer requests.”    

 

 

 

 

Cincom A32 Lathe

PKB continues to invest in its factory capabilities with the recent addition of a Cincom A32 lathe to its primary turn capabilities. This state of the art lathe expands machine capacity and production efficiencies within the Troy, NY ball bearing factory. The Cincom A32 is reputed to be the world’s fastest Swiss type CNC automatic Lathe.

The new lathe enables PKB to shorten its uniquely compact factory lead time of 8-10 weeks for standard bearings and respond more quickly to new and unique ball bearing requests from the aerospace community.

Enhanced products, as a result of this new lathe, will include shaft and bearing assemblies and expedited responses to time sensitive prototype requests.

 

Award Winning Supplier to Defense Supply Center Richmond (DSCR) 

 

PKB is a regular recipient of the Gold Medal for excellent quality and on-time delivery for US Military Defense Programs. Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB), is honored to be named by the U.S. Defense Supply Center Richmond a Best Value Gold Medal recipient for demonstrating exceptional quality and delivery performance to the U.S. Government. 

Michelle C. Skubic, Captain, SC, USN is Defense Supply Center Richmond’s Director of Aviation Supplier Operations for the Defense Supply Center Richmond Aviation Supply Chain.

Captain Skubic stated that the award is presented, “because of your company’s exceptional Automated Best Value System score” and congratulated PKB “for a job well done …efficiently supporting the warfighters.”  

 

 

Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB)

145 Jordan Road, Troy, New York 12180 

518-283-8002 – sales@pacamor.com

PKB is an American Owned & Operated Small Business, registered with the SAM.

PKB is a regular recipient of the Gold Medal for excellent quality and on-time delivery for US Military Defense Programs. Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB), is honored to be named by the U.S. Defense Supply Center Richmond a Best Value Gold Medal recipient for demonstrating exceptional quality and delivery performance to the U.S. Government. Michelle C. Skubic, Captain, SC, USN is Defense Supply Center Richmond’s Director of Aviation Supplier Operations for the Defense Supply Center Richmond Aviation Supply Chain.Captain Skubic stated that the award is presented, “because of your company’s exceptional Automated Best Value System score” and congratulated PKB “for a job well done …efficiently supporting the warfighters.”

To more fully support the needs of our country’s defense programs, Pacamor Kubar Bearings has expanded its ball bearing factory capabilities, with four important new product lines. PKB is now producing Full-Complement Ball Bearings, Thin- Section Ball Bearings, Separable Angular Contact Ball Bearings, and Non-separable Angular Contact Bearings.  PKB also offers legacy bearing products including Radial Ball Bearings, Cryogenic Ball Bearings, Metric Ball Bearings, Aircraft Bearings, and Specialty Ball Bearings.  PKB ball bearings are manufactured at our ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified factory in Troy, NY. 

Ed Osta, President of Pacamor, stated, “Product quality from PKB is excellent. We’re a very customer focused business.  Customers have made it known that these four products are desirable to them.  Our customers are our greatest asset and our existence depends on responding to their ever changing needs.  These four new products that we’re introducing today are a direct result of specific customer requests.”          

Pacamor Kubar Bearings(PKB) continues to invest in its factory with the recent addition of a Cincom A32 lathe to its primary turn capabilities. This state of the art lathe expands machine capacity and production efficiencies within the Troy, NY ball bearing factory.  The Cincom A32 is reputed to be the world’s fastest Swiss type CNC automatic Lathe.  The new lathe enables PKB to shorten its uniquely compact factory lead time of 8-10 weeks for standard bearings and respond more quickly to new and unique ball bearing requests from the aerospace community.  Enhanced products, as a result of this new lathe, will include shaft and bearing assemblies and expedited responses to time sensitive prototype requests.  

 

sales@pacamor.com                    

518-283-8002

 

The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large, infrared-optimized space telescope. The project is working to a 2018 launch date. Webb will find the first galaxies that formed in the early Universe, connecting the Big Bang to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Webb will peer through dusty clouds to see stars forming planetary systems, connecting the Milky Way to our own Solar System. Webb’s instruments will be designed to work primarily in the infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum, with some capability in the visible range. 

Webb will have a large mirror, 6.5 meters (21.3 feet) in diameter and a sunshield the size of a tennis court. Both the mirror and sunshade won’t fit onto a rocket fully open, so both will fold up and open once Webb is in outer space. Webb will reside in an orbit about 1.5 million km (1 million miles) from the Earth.

The James Webb Space Telescope was named after the NASA Administrator who crafted the Apollo program, and who was a staunch supporter of space science. – http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/

Pacamor Kubar Bearings (PKB) extremely high precision specialty ball bearings are found in many challenging aerospace and defense applications. PKB’s specialty ball bearing designs are found in near-earth and cryogenic missions, life-sustaining survival suits for space exploration, public and private rocket launches and well known NASA space projects.

PKB manufactures a wide variety of specialty ball bearings for space vehicles, guidance systems, array mechanisms, flow meters and flow control units that are used in some pretty extreme environments like the James Webb Space Telescope or JWST.