The materials of the bearing cage

The bearing cage has a great influence on the performance and life of the rolling bearing, and the selection of its material is particularly important. 

The cage material should have the characteristics of high mechanical strength, good wear resistance, impact load resistance and good dimensional stability.

Bearing cages are generally divided into stamping cages and solid cages.

The stamped cages for small and medium bearings generally use high-quality carbon structural steel strips or steel plates, such as 08 or 10 steel. 

According to different purposes, there are also brass and stainless steel plates.

Large-scale bearings and bearings with small production batches generally use mechanism-based solid cages, and materials include brass, bronze, aluminum alloy and structural carbon steel.

Precision angular contact ball bearing cages are usually manufactured using phenolic laminated cloth tubes.

In recent years, my country has developed engineering plastic cages. The typical material is glass fiber reinforced polyamide 66 (GRPA66-25), and the working temperature is -30~+120°C. 

This material is light in weight, low in density, friction-resistant, corrosion-resistant, good in elasticity, good in sliding property, easy to direct injection molding, low in manufacturing cost, 

and has been used to manufacture cages of various bearings.