Thin Section Bearings - Split

The innovative method of manufacture used for split thin section bearings allows for custom sizes to be easily accommodated with a one-time tooling cost. Bearings can be manufactured to meet your exact dimensional requirements, with diameters up to five metres. This method allows for the bearing to be manufactured around the application, not vice versa.

Carter are able to provide expert advice on load and speed information for specific requirements. Our experts use our bespoke bearing calculation software to calculate the speed and life cycle of a bearing. Combined with our in-house programmes, such as Solidworks and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) which can predict how a product reacts to real-world forces, vibration, heat, fluid flow, and other physical effects, Carter provides all customers with a premium service.

Thanks to the split inner and outer ring design, the bearing preload is determined by the shaft and housing fit. This enabled the internal clearance or preload settings to be determined at the design stage of the application, thereby reducing the potential cost of requesting special preloads to be set into the bearing at the assembly stage.

Due to the unique manufacturing process, UNASIS employs, large bearings can be produced with extremely low radial runout, making split thin section bearings suitable for applications where extreme accuracy is vital.

UNASIS split thin section bearings can be supplied as a stand-alone product, but also fully integrated into UNASIS slewing ring bearings. Their lightweight, heavy-duty, high-precision characteristics make them suitably ideal for numerous applications, including tank turrets, naval gun mounts, satellite gimbals, radar systems, and ancillary products. UNASIS have a wealth of experience in manufacturing lightweight slewing rings featuring split thin section bearings for a range of applications, where large masses require swift and ultra-precise movement with bearings packaged into the smallest space.

The elasticity of the split thin section bearing is an advantage to your production assembly procedures. Specialised features can be machined into shaft and housing components whilst maintaining low cost as the bearings can be manoeuvred around and over these features.

The manufacturing lead time of a split thin section bearing is significantly less than that of a standard thin section bearing. This is thanks to the special manufacturing process that uses a flat bar precision machined in a linear profile, that is then shaped into the traditional bearing shape.

The high-performance races are specially produced in a corrosion-resistant 420 stainless steel as standard. In addition, to suit customer request, the standard stainless-steel balls can be substituted for silicone nitride ceramic, industrial ruby and M50 tool steel. The standard NYLON cage can be substituted for PEEK and stainless steel as required.

UNASIS split thin section bearings are manufactured using state-of-the-art linear precision machining and grinding, to then be formed into the classic round bearing shape. The advantage of this innovative method of production is the high-precision class and significantly reduced lead times it allows. Due to this, overall expense can be considerably reduced, especially when volume production is required.

The key difference that elevates the UNASIS split thin section bearings from a standard bearing is the split in the raceways. The rolling elements do not move within a fixed solid raceway, meaning atmospheric conditions are much less likely to impact the bearing. Such elasticity of the races results in variables like temperature fluctuations, vibration, shocks, and external forces to be easily accommodated within the application design.

If thin section bearings are being installed into a housing, pressure should be applied only on the outer ring. Bearings to be installed on a shaft should be pushed on the inner ring. Since the majority of Silverthin products are open (without seals), a clean, contaminant-free installation area is advised. 

Please review our technical article with detailed instructions on how to install our split thin section bearing range.