Split bearing design

[ryanmech]

Hello

Does anyone know of rules for split bearing design tolerences.

My application is a orkot on Stainless steel spherical bearing. I want to split the outer stainless steel race for inserting the orkot ball. I plan on have one split only, so the outer race is still one piece.

What i was looking for was a rule of thumb for the tolerence of the outer race, with a split in it. The split may be 0.5mm in width. ie what should the OD and tolerences be to obtain the correct internal clearences, when the split is closed up on installation. Also to have the correct interference with the bearing housing once installed.

Anything more accurate than a rule of thumb will be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks
Ryan

 

[rnd2]

Ryanmech.
Firstly, unless the load is truly insignificant,
re-consider Orkot as a material for the ball.
The reason is simple. Orkot is a parallel layered laminate material so has significant material property variances in all three dimensions. In unsuitable conditions it is prone to de-laminate. Consider a wood broom's handle with the grain running in the normal axial direction. The broom will handle normally expected forces. Now consider a broom handle with the wood grain running transverse to the normal axial direction. The broom handle will not be able to cope with normal forces expected with its operation and will fail sooner than later. This is what will happen to an Orkot ball if it is required to journey under any reasonable load. For this type of application you need as close to a homogenous structure as possible. Some thermo-plastics may be worth considering such as pps peek delrin etc. There is nothing wrong with Orkot as a material. Only wrong applications for it.

 

[rnd2]

ryanmech,
Just re-read your post. I was thinking of multi-ball application. Yours looks more like a single ball plain bearing application so although I stand by what it says, for your application, disregard my earlier post.

 

[ryanmech]

Sorry rnd2

Yes it is a plain spherical bearing. I have although changed the design from a split outer race, to a whole outer race with an insertion slot. The insertion slot allows the ball to be inserted inside the outer race whilst it is perpendicular, then rotated to be aligned within the outer race.

Cheers
Ryan