Techno Linear Motion Catalog21Technical InformationFlat race, flat seat bearingsconsist of two flat washers and a ball retaining assembly. They are usedwhen the ball retainer assembly must carry thrust loads without restraining shaft oscillations or flexures.They work well with light loads and are very economical.Grooved race, flat seat bearingsare the most common type of thrust ball bearing. They consist of a shaftmounted small bore washer, a large housing mounted bore washer, and a ball retaining assembly. Groovedrace bearings have a load bearing capacity approximately 4 times greater than flat race bearings.Banded thrust ball bearingsare self-contained, have grooved races, have a stationary and rotating facewith full ball complement, and are encased in a containing band. These bearings are most commonly usedwhere the bearing's outer circumference must be protected from contamination, for blind installation, orwhere separating forces cause substantial axial motion of bearing components.Aligning grooved race bearingsare a variation of grooved race bearings, and are available in single anddouble acting types. Aligning members compensate for initial misalignment due to shaft deflection ormismatch, while allowing uniform distribution of the load through the bearing. The double-acting type carriesthrust in both directions.Linear Bearingsare most commonly used in linear motion applications. This type of bearing is used whenloads are to be supported as the bearing rides back and forth along a shaft. Each raceway holds balls inrolling contact between the shaft and inner bearing race of the bushing. The remaining balls recirculatefreely in the back side of the clearance in the ball train sleeve. A retainer is usually provided so that whenthe bearing is removed from the shaft the balls stay in place. Linear bearings are as easy to install as aplain bearing, while utilizing the advantages of rolling contact. Among the important factors when consideringload capacity of a linear bearing system are life expectancy, shaft hardness, and load orientation withrespect to the ball trains. Typically, if a lifetime of more than 2,000,000 inches is required, or if a shafthardness of less than Rc 60 is specified, then the load-carrying capacity of the bearing system will bereduced.Linear Bearings are the most commonly applied bearing type in linear motion systems. Clearly, manyapplications involve using two sets of double linear rails, with two bearing blocks on each rail. In this case,the load found on each bearing block is of interest when selecting the bearing components. There are threebasic orientations for the bearing system and loads, and each case is represented as follows.Horizontal Translation with Normal Load:when a normal load is applied to a horizontal bearing system,the loads on each bearing are found by using the following equations. The equations still apply if the loadis acting inside of the carriage mounting surface area. The orientation of the applied load with respect tothe bearing system is the important feature to consider. This means that these equations can still be usedeven if the orientation of the translation is not horizontal, as long as the load to bearing relationship ispreserved.Load-carrying balls3333Recirculating ballsin clearance