How Ball Bearings Are Made
Round objects, like ball bearings, have always been used to make jobs easier. There are many types of rolling bearings that also come in a wide variety of sizes. Most commonly, ball bearings can be held in the palm of your hand. When examining how ball bearings are made, we must first look at the materials used. Most ball bearings are made of steel. This material is used due to its tolerance to stress. To achieve the necessary industry standards, steel used for ball bearings may be hardened or made tougher using heat treatment. While some newer bearings now use molded plastic cages for cost reasons, many cages are traditionally formed from thin steel. The manufacturing process for ball bearings can be broken down to four components: the outer race, inner race, rolling balls and cage formation. 1-2. Races Both the inner and outer races are made using a similar process. Starting with steel tubing, machine cutting tools cut the tubing slightly larger than the race shape. The...