When you hear about flanged ball bearings, you might easily assume that that they are truly a different type of bearing. However, this is not really the case. Just as ball bearings are offered open or sealed, they are also available plain or flanged. You can deem the flange beating as just about any other option given to the design engineer by the bearing manufacturer.
Either way, flanged ball bearings are most commonly leveraged when the application requires the bearing to be locked in place. The design engineer can choose to lock the bearing along the shaft, axially, or perpendicular to the shaft. Of course, this depends on the intended application.
The essence of using flanged ball bearings in this case is to help withstand axial thrusting. In the event that there happens to be any axial load or axial push on the ball bearing, then the flange will certainly prevent the bearing from moving axially.
That leaves many wondering about the applications that benefit from these types of ball bearings. Well, any application that calls for a ball bearing to be mounted in a high vibration area, not forgetting any application that requires high axial loads can benefit immensely from using flanged ball bearings. Automotive applications are a perfect example.
You will commonly come across flanged ball bearings in light duty application areas, such as food processing, machinery, conveyors, belt drives in HVAC, and material handling, to name a few. No wonder they remain to be a popular option to day.
Once the decision of purchasing flanged ball bearings has been made, you need to ensure that it is perfectly installed. There is no reason to panic considering the installation of the bearing is not complicated. The only con is that many types of flange are highly expensive to manufacture, and tend to increase the cost of the application design.
All in all, it’s quite rare to come across an application where a flanged miniature ball bearing is needed. That’s why you should have a look at all application alternative before you finally leverage flanged ball bearings to your advantage.
