Taper roller bearings

[Steven Taylor]

As some of you may know, Gary Gibson, The Motorsports Market Manager for The Timken Bearing Corporation was present at FSAE in Detroit. He is interested in getting Timken more involved in FSAE. I told him I would find out what size taper bearings teams are using REGARDLESS of brand. At The University of Akron we use
32005( 25mm bore, 47mm OD)
L45449( 29mm bore, 50.292mm OD)
32006(30mm bore, 55mm OD)
Please reply to this post if you can since I would like to give him as much information as possible. I know that not everyone uses this type of bearing but I dont think it would look very immpressive if I tell him I only heard from 5 out of well over 200 teams.

[Steven Taylor]

As some of you may know, Gary Gibson, The Motorsports Market Manager for The Timken Bearing Corporation was present at FSAE in Detroit. He is interested in getting Timken more involved in FSAE. I told him I would find out what size taper bearings teams are using REGARDLESS of brand. At The University of Akron we use
32005( 25mm bore, 47mm OD)
L45449( 29mm bore, 50.292mm OD)
32006(30mm bore, 55mm OD)
Please reply to this post if you can since I would like to give him as much information as possible. I know that not everyone uses this type of bearing but I dont think it would look very immpressive if I tell him I only heard from 5 out of well over 200 teams.

[Erik Whoa]

We use deep groove ball bearings. sorry.

Slightly off topic; we spoke with him about integrating a seal in the inner race of a bearing. This would help in drivetrain sealing issues. Is anyone else interested in a design like that?

[CMURacing - Prometheus]

as i check the cost report, we used the following SKF part numbers:
LM 67048
LM 67010

WRT a seal in the inner race, we use commercially available seals from Chicago Rawhide. One piece comes matched to the bearing race diameter, so we don't have any problems.

[Jersey Tom]

Don't use em, sorry.

Curious though how heavy everyone's wheel bearings are.

Ours were .45kg in '05, .25kg in '06, looking like .20kg in '07.

[Storbeck]

We use the same as CMU Racing mentioned. 1.25 inch bore on the bearings and 1.5 for the seal. Far oversized in my opinion, but they are big enough to get a decent sized stub through, and you can go to Wal-Mart and buy the 12 Cheapo China special boat trailer bearing kit complete with seals and they will fit and work fine.

[RonBurgundy01]

For the front we use Timken's

Part No - 30207
Dimension - Bore: 35mm
Cup OD - 72mm

We have also used NTN bearings, same dimensions, same part number and pretty sure they come out of the same factory.

To all you guys not using tapered rollers in the front, how do you account for the thrust loading caused by steering the car? The only other option i can see is maybe angular contact ball bearings but they are expensive and in my opinion not as good at handling axial loads as tapered rollers

Cheers All

Matty

[Jersey Tom]

Angular contact ball bearings, or variations on that theme (combined with other elements). The kind we were using in '05.. Double Row Angular Contact Ball.. $30US-ish.. 35mm ID, 72mm OD x 27mm wide. .45kg. Rated to some absurdly high axial load.

Even last year when we used a combination angular contact ball and needle roller setup.. with a fairly lightweight bearing (.25kg), the basic dynamic axial load rating was 7.4kN! (1650lbf). And those were some fairly small ball bearings.

The even smaller .2kg bearing I'm looking at will be lighter and should be more rigid, and according to INA's online service life calculator should be good for 60,000+ hours of use. I call that pretty good.

[CMURacing - Prometheus]

Bearing life is an essentially pointless calculation on these cars. Based on said calculations, we can use bearings so small that the spindle/axle/hub would not be strong enough to support a static wheel load, let alone dynamic loads.

We use tapered roller bearings in the front because we can get them cheaper than a double-row bearing. but we use a dead spindle in the front, if we went to a live design (as, based on what i recall of your uprights) colorado has, it would make sense to use the same bearing at all four wheels (we use yours in the rear).

[Jersey Tom]

Holy crap!! Someone took notice of our car enough to know we use a live spindle design in our front uprights???? I'm not being sarcastic or anything, that's AWESOME. Makes me feel like we dont have an assclown program anymore.

Anyway. We like running a universal upright (and looks like universal hub) design on our car, eases manufacturing and logistics. So having the same bearing at all four corners just makes life easier.

[CMURacing - Prometheus]

hahah, i just remember from the pictures you posted on here, because you had four identical uprights. that usually means live spindles.

i also like the idea of universal uprights (and common parts, and lean manufacturing in general), it works well for all of the static competition presentations. plus, you need fewer spares.

[Greg Holden]

We have used LM11900 .75" ID and LM67000 1.25" ID in the front for several years now on a dead spindle. Overkill for the loading scenario and therefore heavy. I'm going to try to push for an alternate lighter setup for next year though.