Thrust Bearings

With a Thrust Bearing or Axial Bearing, the force is parallel to the axis, which pushes against the bearing. There are many thrust bearing applications, but the primary application is to separate a rotating surface from a non-rotating surface. Some examples would be: supporting a rotary table, absorbing the thrust of a boat's or airplane's propeller, and neutralizing friction.

How to choose the correct thrust bearing

Define the application: what is the design intended to do? This includes shaft dimensions or space dimensions for the thrust bearing.
Force or load against the bearing: What is the total pressure or load pressing on the thrust bearing?
Thrust bearing preload: Bearing preload is a predetermined load applied to a bearing and is separate from application loads. Preload is a design consideration to increase rigidity, decrease vibration, and sliding friction. When evaluating the total load, preload needs to be considered and added to the application load.
RPM of the application?
Hours of operation or cycle time?
Operating environment, does the operating environment require special consideration?

A Torque Transmission Thrust Bearing

Our Thrust Bearing is a three-piece set, a Molded Ball Retainer, and two Thrust Washers.

The Ball Retainer is Injected molded using heat stabilized nylon 6/6
The balls are carbon or stainless steel, hardened to Rc 60 and finished to Grade 100, 0.0001-inch tolerance.
The thrust washers are stamped to a tight ID and OD tolerance heat treated and finished to a 10 micro inch finish.

The Carbon Steel Washer is CR 1075 hardened to Rc 59-61

The Stainless Steel Thrust Washer is CR 410 Stainless hardened to Rc 38-42