Retainers

Bearing Works manufactures the retainers for our deep groove and angular contact bearing lines.

The retainer keeps the balls equally spaced providing equal load distribution and prevents unnecessary wear of the rolling elements.

A retainer material with fillers can provide certain lubrication benefits as normal wear occurs. Numerous composite materials are available that are not listed here that can meet certain environmental and functional requirements.

Please contact us for further information.

PEEK and Vespel are generally considered vacuum compatible. 

PPS offers the greatest chemical resistance and along with PEEK is FDA and USDA compliant.

PEEK and PPS offer the highest speed capability as a retainer material

Material compatibility in critical and or sensitive environments such as vacuum applications is subject to your bench testing and data sheet evaluation.

Since application environments vary greatly the following chart is simply a guideline.

Retainer Materials

Material Max Temp Speed (dN)*% Outgassing Particle Generation Cost
PEEK 480 F 650,000 Excellent Excellent Moderate
PPS 425 F 650,000 Good Excellent Moderate
VESPEL 500 F 600,000 Excellent Excellent High
TORLON 500 F 600,000 Excellent Excellent Moderate
TEFLON 550 F 30,000 Good Good Low
NYLON 250 F 250,000 Poor Good Low
PHENOLIC 300 F 600,000 Poor Poor Low

*d=inner bore diameter,N=RPM
%; Inner ring piloted, open configuration

Data Sheets