Thrust bearings are mostly used in automobiles

There are plenty of bearings available in the market which is used in different types of machineries and their parts. But in case of automobiles, any type of bearing cannot be used. The automobiles are made with special care and hence some special types of bearings are required in case of them.

Which bearings are used in cars?

One of the many bearings which are used in the manufacture of machine and machine parts is the thrust bearing, also known as the automotive bearing. Such bearings generally fall into the category of the rolling element bearing. As similar to other bearings, the thrust bearings also allow the rotation between the parts of the machine and are also used to support an axial load.

Detailed overview of the features

There are a wide variety of such bearings which are used in manufacturing of automobiles. The thrust ball bearings are the most popular type of thrust bearings which are mostly composed of ball bearings and supported by a ring which is used in applications where comparatively low thrusts are required with a small amount of axial load. Another type of automotive bearing is the cylindrical thrust roller bearings. They generally consist of some small rollers, which are cylindrical in shape, and are arranged in a flat manner with their axes pointing towards the main axis of the bearing. Such bearings generally provide excellent carrying capacity of the load but also tend to wear away because of the differences in radial speed and frictional forces that are usually higher than that of the ball bearings. Such bearings which are used in the automobiles are usually cheap and mechanic friendly along with very good durability. There are other varieties of thrust bearings being used in automobiles, these two being the most common of them. Some other kinds of bearings that find their usage in automobile industries are tapered roller thrust bearings, spherical roller thrust bearing, fluid bearings and magnetic bearings. They have different functions and construction types which enables their use in different fields of engineering.

Why are they used in cars?

A special type of thrust bearings which are used in automobiles is the clutch throw out bearings, also known as clutch release bearing which is used in the clutching mechanism of the cars. The thrust bearings are mostly used in cars as the forward gears present in modern car gearboxes generally use helical gears that causes the axial forces side by side helping in the noise reduction and smoothness. The axial forces are properly dealt with by the thrust bearings due to their excellent design and construction and pocket friendly nature.