Do you need custom ball bearings for aerospace, military, medical, or semiconductor equipment applications? Schatz Bearing can customize one of our standard catalog products, or we can design and manufacture a custom bearing that is driven solely by your requirements. Contacting us and explaining what you need is the first step, but there’s a lot more to the design process. This article explains what’s involved.
Reference Documents
Do your custom bearings need to meet requirements from certain specifications or standards? As Schatz plans your custom solution, our engineering team will refer to these resources.
- ABMA Industry Standards from the American Bearing Manufacturers Association
- ASTM / SAE Standards from ASTM International or SAE International
- U.S. military standards in MIL-DTL, MIL-PRF, or MIL-STD documents
- BACB specifications from the Boeing product series
- AS Standards that define test procedures for product qualification and hardware requirements
- AMS Documents that describe Aerospace Material Specifications
More specifically, we’ll use these resources in conjunction with your design inputs. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a bearing configuration with the right bearing materials, geometry, and ball complement. In subsequent steps of the design process, and once all of your design inputs are complete, we’ll return to these reference documents.
Design Inputs for Custom Bearings
What is the application for your custom bearing? This is just one of the design inputs that we’ll ask you to provide, but it’s an important one because it determines more than just the specifications and standards to meet. For example, if you need a custom aerospace bearing for a civilian aircraft, your performance requirements may be different than if you need a bearing for a U.S. military program.
Speed in revolutions per minute (RPM) and applied loads are key technical inputs. Since there isn’t just one type of applied load, your bearing design may need to accommodate thrust loads, radial loads, moment loads, combined loads, or any other loads that are applicable. Operating conditions aren’t necessarily constant. A detailed duty cycle outlines loads and speeds and the percentage of time at each condition.
Additional design parameters for custom bearings include starting and operating torque, temperature gradients, housing considerations, and installation procedures. With bearing installation, there is both a housing fit and tolerance and a shaft fit and tolerance. Because bearings can be lubricated with either grease or preservative oils, you can also specify a type of lubricant. Once Schatz has gathered all of this information and you’ve issued an initial order, we can begin building a design checklist.
Design Checklist and Approvals
Schatz’s Engineering Department creates a design checklist so that we can develop a structured plan to produce your custom bearings and track any changes. As part of this process, we’ll work with you to resolve any conflicting requirements and assign a part number. Internally, our Engineering Department also works closely with our QA, Manufacturing, Purchasing, Production, and Assembly Departments.
Drawings, Specifications, and Verification
Next, Schatz creates your part drawings and specifications. Upon request, we can provide you with these documents for review and approval. The part number prints and other specifications that we develop enable us to produce an assembly drawing plus individual part drawings for the rings, shield and seal, cages, and dies or tools. We also return to the reference documents listed above. Upon request, we can provide you with assembly design for review and approval.
As part of our Design Review Process, our Engineering Department verifies your production information file (PIF) with other Schatz departments. During our internal PIF meetings, team members may discuss new tooling requirements, material procurement, lead times, or application-specific issues. The Design Checklist can be updated, if necessary, but design verification generally occurs at this point.
Design Validation for Custom Bearings
Schatz’s Engineering Department uses theoretical formulas as well as sophisticated modeling software to verify custom bearing capacity and life calculations. If necessary, Schatz can develop a prototype part for customer evaluation within your application. When required, Schatz has the capability of performing qualification testing on prototype hardware and producing a detailed qualification report. The customer will then approve the prototype and place an order for production volumes. First article inspection (FAI) or customer feedback can constitute design validation.
If you receive the prototype and request changes, Engineering will review them to ensure that the changes will function within the original design. If the changes will affect characteristics under a specification, your approval may be required prior to implementation. With custom aircraft bearings or other products that are governed by regulatory agencies, regulatory approval may also be required.
Choose Custom Bearings from Schatz
Schatz Bearing has an online catalog of standard products, but we also design and manufacture custom bearings for aerospace, military, medical, or semiconductor equipment applications at our Made in USA Manufacturing facility in Poughkeepsie, New York. Our quality system is AS 9100 D and ISO 9001:2015 certified, and we can make your custom bearings with the following options among others:
- Up to 14” OD, including thin section bearings
- 52100, 440C, BG42, M50, high nitrogen stainless steel
- Up to ABEC 7 tolerances
- A variety of retainer and closure options are available
Are you ready to get started? Contact us.
