Linear ball bearings online purchase

Linear ball bearings

Linear ball bearings, often simply referred to as linear bearings or colloquially as ball bushes, are special types of ball bearings that allow axial ball circulation instead of radial. The main purpose of these bearings is not to support a rotating element, as is the case with most other rolling bearings. Instead, they serve the low-friction guidance of a translational, i.e. linear movement of a machine element along a cylindrical shaft.

Linear bearings have multiple raceway plates on the outer diameter of the bearing, one for each ball circulation. The balls in a linear bearing roll on these raceway plates. These raceway plates are typically housed in a plastic casing, which also functions as a ball cage and takes over the function of ball recirculation. In these linear systems, the contact between the load-bearing balls of the bearing and the shaft occurs in the form of a point contact. The permissible load capacity of a linear ball bearing depends on the number of load-bearing ball rows.

In a linear ball bearing, only the inner ball row, which directly contacts the shaft, is loaded. The outer ball row, on the other hand, moves against the direction of the bearing movement and returns to the starting position in the load zone through a ball redirection and ball recirculation.

Linear bearings are available with or without sealing on one or both sides.