Carter Americas, a leading provider of precision bearings, will be exhibiting at booth no. 7049 at the forthcoming Performance Racing Industry Trade Show (PRI Show) from December 8th –10th, 2022 at the Indiana Convention Center. This will serve as an ideal chance for them to introduce industry experts to their state-of-the-art range of motorsport bearings and tools. Thanks to their exclusive distribution rights for NMB’s cutting-edge E-Type bearings across North and South America, clients now have the perfect opportunity to gain a competitive advantage across all NASCAR and Indy Car applications as well as other related racing ventures.
The NMB E-type bearings are developed to dramatically enhance the performance of motorsport parts like wishbone links, tie rods, and control arms by reducing friction and ensuring swift rotation in all directions. The patented E-Type liner delivers the hardest PTFE liner, which radically lowers deflection under load and side-to-side movement, and raises the maximum bearing working temperature from 121ºC (249ºF) to 180ºC (356ºF). Furthermore, their radial load rating is enhanced by an astounding 35% as compared to other "conventional" bearing designs.
The vital performance requisites of bearings used in the Motorsport sectors are quite comparable to those used for aerospace applications. Carter Manufacturing Ltd. is uniquely positioned to serve the motorsports clientele due to our significant experience in providing custom aerospace bearings and bearing tools to customers in the aerospace industry, all over the world. Clients frequently ask questions like, “How can we enhance the performance of our Monoball bearings?" It’s a product category that also pertains to Rod End Bearings and Spherical Plain Bearings. Other queries include; “How can we improve bearing torque while escalating quality control to ensure that the bearing performance is as per expectations?" and "How can we extend the life span of our spherical plain bearings?"
The foremost thing to acknowledge is that the performance of the bearing is entirely reliant on its application. Hence, we must make sure that the chosen bearing is appropriate and well-suited to its operating conditions.
Consequently, the quality of the bearing design and manufacturing is crucial, and to compete, the majority of bearing manufacturers will offer comparable primary dimensions, such as inner and outer diameters and widths. However, choosing the finest bearing is an imperative decision that revolves around key factors like the quality of the material used, internal geometry, process control, tolerances, and the liner to ensure optimum performance.
For instance, the ball's spherical endurance will establish the consistency of rotation across the whole range, while the quality of the ball’s surface finish will affect the torque optimisation. The interior liner’s thickness, its clearance with the ball, and the composition of the liner’s material are other important aspects that provide considerable flexibility to bearing manufacturers. Additionally, when compared to regular NMB bearings, the NMB E-Type liner has a proprietary design that raises the maximum working temperature from 249ºF to 356ºF, making it a far better alternative for a part placed in close proximity to a heat source. A quick and simple bearing upgrade will result in noticeable improvements as the E-Type bearing is easily installed and immediately usable with the NMB standard product.
Bearing performance in applications such as rocker arms can have a significant effect on the race car's handling performance, and merely switching from an ABYT-7V bearing to an ABYTE-7V bearing will result in instant enhancement. It’s also imperative for a bearing to properly fit within its housing. For instance, if it's a "slip" or "interference" fit, this will harm the overall bearing performance. Similarly, for any machine design, it's crucial to ensure that the stack-up tolerances enable each rotary part to have sufficient clearance to effectively perform its function.
Making a Huge Difference with Bearing Tools
In the motorsports business, it’s a standard procedure to utilise a hydraulic or arbour press and use between 10,000 and 50,000 pounds of force to install a bearing with a v-groove, applying the "anvil stacking" technique. However, this additional power may cause non-fulfillment of inspection and bearing torque. A preferable substitute is to use a Tri-roller swaging tool with either a drill press or a manual arrangement.
This applies a rotational motion to smoothly and progressively swage the bearing, resulting in a congruous and mirror finish installation; a technique that has been endorsed by top aircraft manufacturers and is acknowledged as the industry standard for crucial aerospace applications. Therefore, if you are concerned about the performance of your bearing, use a UNASIS cutting tool to remove the defective bearing and restore it with the state-of-the-art NMB E-Type bearing, using a UNASIS tri-roller swaging tool to obtain superior performance.
The prime goal now is to ensure that your bearing has been perfectly installed without compromising on the consistency of process control. The UNASIS swivel torque and proof load tools have proved to be ideal solutions to check and authenticate successful installation and operational uniformity by testing for both breakaway and misconfigured rotation. The torque essential for a suspension bearing, to operate flawlessly, is the same as required for airplanes. These UNASIS tools can also be utilized to enhance the fitting and endurance of all sorts of machined parts that guarantee continuous and best possible bearing torque results.
Moreover, the UNASIS proof load test tool is also employed to gauge the bearing axial displacement within the housing, under a certain load, to confirm that it is securely mounted and won't be moved by a side load. This is mandatory for critical aerospace applications and it ought to be a requirement for applications in the motorsport industry as well. These two tests offer useful statistics to engineers for performance enhancement, whereas the UNASIS Aerospace bearing tools combined with NMB E-Type bearings can greatly enhance monoball bearing performance.