Ball Bearing - Applications

Applications

In general, ball bearings are used in most applications that involve moving parts. Some of these applications have specific features and requirements:

• Hard drive bearings used to be highly spherical, and were said to be the best spherical manufactured shapes, but this is no longer true, and more and more are being replaced with fluid bearings.
• German ball bearing factories were often a target of allied aerial bombings during World War II; such was the importance of the ball bearing to the German war industry.
• In horology, the company Jean Lassale designed a watch movement that used ball bearings to reduce the thickness of the movement. Using 0.20 mm balls, the Calibre 1200 was only 1.2 mm thick, which still is the thinnest mechanical watch movement.
• Aerospace bearings are used in many applications on commercial, private and military aircraft including pulleys, gearboxes and jet engine shafts. Materials include M50 tool steel (AMS6491), Carbon chrome steel (AMS6444), the corrosion resistant AMS5930, 440C stainless steel, silicon nitride (ceramic) and titanium carbide-coated 440C.
• Skateboarding. The wheels in a skateboard contain two bearings in each of the four wheels. Most commonly bearing 608-2Z is used (a deep groove ball bearing from series 60 with 8 mm bore diameter)
• Yo-Yos, there are ball bearings in the center of high quality Yo-Yos.