Technical Info | Adhesive Practices

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ADHESIVE PRACTICES

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Small bearings usually have thin raceway cross-sections and radial play in the range of 0.0002 to 0.0008 inches. This means that considerable care needs to be taken when bearings need to be permanently mounted on shafts and/or housings. If bearings are press-fit to their mating components, tolerances of these components will need to be held tightly to avoid loss of radial play and bearing malfunction. As an alternative, bearings are often bonded in place with adhesive. This method also allows bearing pairs to be preloaded with a weight to remove axial play while the adhesive is curing. With proper design and handling, a bearing assembly using adhesive bonds can be extremely strong. This section deals with some of the issues involved in adhesive bonding.

ADHESIVE TYPES

Most adhesives used for metal-to-metal bonding are of the anaerobic type. These adhesives require the absence of oxygen before curing can start. At least one mating surface must be porous to oxygen in order to allow absorption of oxygen from the bond. This type of adhesive can have shear strength in the order of 2-5,000 pounds per square inch, resulting in push-out forces of hundreds of pounds, even for a small assembly.

There are many types of suitable anaerobic adhesives available from several manufacturers. The specific adhesive used will depend on the materials to be bonded and the application itself. SWC has extensive adhesive bonding experience and our bearing engineers can make adhesive recommendations based on each application. Please contact SWC for the latest information on adhesives.

ADHESIVE GROOVES

For maximum strength, there should be a gap between mating components of 0.002 to 0.005 inches. In order to reduce overall runout, it is usual to design an adhesive groove in the mating surfaces that gives sufficient clearance for bond strength and also provides a trap for excess adhesive. The other areas of the mating surfaces should be kept at a minimum clearance to improve runout characteristics.

Note: If an adhesive groove is impractical, then gap between bearing and mating surface should be .0004 inch minimum to allow sufficient adhesive for bonding.

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