Axial needle bearings

Axial needle roller bearings (AXW) are units consisting of axial needle roller and cage assemblies (AXK) and axial bearing washers with a centering collar. They can be combined with needle bushes, needle bushes and needle bearings. The contact surface for the needle roller and cage assembly must be hardened and ground. Axial needle roller bearings, i.e. their main component, the axial needle roller and cage assembly, consist of a dimensionally stable cage in which a large number of needle rollers are safely guided and held. The needle rollers have extremely small diameter deviations from one another and allow for high axial loads and shock-resistant bearings. The needle rollers are designed with slightly crowned surface lines towards the ends, which allows for a modified linear contact between the raceways and the needle rollers. This end profiling avoids damaging edge stresses and extends the service life of the bearing. Axial bearings result in very stiff bearings with small to very small axial space requirements. Particularly space-saving bearings, which require no more space than conventional thrust washers, result when the end faces of the adjacent machine parts can be used as raceways for the axial needle roller and cage assembly. Axial needle roller bearings with plastic cages are suitable for operating temperatures from -20 °C to +120 °C.