It can be a very difficult process to choose a bearing when you are designing a piece of rotating machinery. There are a host of things which must be taken into consideration, such as the performance characteristics and operation limits of the device as well as how often and in what environment the device will be used.
Many bearings are chosen ‘off the shelf’, which means in essence that the bearing has already been designed to meet exacting specifications. And it’s to these specifications it will need to perform when used in a rotating machine. However, for some bespoke applications it might be necessary to look at designing a bearing from scratch, a process which might take some time but will fit into your exacting requirements.
Some of the types of things which you might need to look at when designing a bearing include:
• The tolerances
• The bearing material
• Lubrication requirements
• The design characteristics
Many bearing manufacturers will have a huge range of bearing designs to choose from, so the instances of having to design a bespoke bearing are dropping. However, in some large applications, such as wind turbines and engines, bespoke design is something which will continue to be necessary.