What type of bearing do I have ?

If it’s your first time looking a bearing then you might not have a clue what type of bearing that you have. So how do you go about identifying it ?

Firstly, you could give us a call or take a picture and email it to us and we can let you know what information that we need to help you to identify it….. or you can take the approach of trying to identify it yourself.

Before we go any further, the easiest way to identify the type of bearing that you have is to see if there are any part numbers on it and if there is then google them.
For example if you have a 6203-ZZ bearing then googling it will tell you that it is a deep groove ball bearing
If you have a bearing that says JP13049A on it on one side and JP13010 on it on the other side then you have an JP13049A/JP13010 bearing and googling it will tell you that it’s a tapered roller bearing
If you have a bearing with HK2016 on it then googling it will tell you that it’s a needle roller bearing and finally if you have a bearing with NJ205 on it then googling it will tell you that it’s a cylindrical roller bearing.

This list isn’t exhaustive as there are so many different types out there but we will try and cover some of the most common ones below.

Firstly rolling bearings come with some form of rolling element such as

• Balls
• Needles
• Rollers

If your bearing comes with the balls shown in the first image on the left then it’s what is known as a ball bearing. If you bearing comes with the needles shown in the middle then your bearing is what is known as a needle bearing and if the bearing comes with the rollers shown on the right then it is what is known as a roller bearing.

Now we know the type of bearing we need to narrow it down within the group as to the type of bearing within that product group.

Ball bearings can come in many different forms

• Deep groove ball bearing
• Angular contact ball bearing
• Insert bearing
• Self aligning ball bearing
• Thrust ball bearing
• Angular contact thrust ball bearing
• Thin section ball bearing

Needle bearings too come in different varieties, some of which can be seen below.

As do cylindrical roller bearings too

This list just covers 3 of the bearing types available.

• Ball bearings
• Needle bearings
• Cylindrical roller bearings

Even within these product groups there are far many more varieties than we have mentioned. Other bearing types that we haven’t included on this list are :

• Tapered roller bearings
• Barrel roller bearings
• Spherical Plain bearings
• Bronze bearings
• Engine bearings
• Linear bearings
• Plastic bearings

As mentioned earlier in the article, the best way to identify the bearing types is to try and find the part numbers on the bearing and identify it from there. If not then ask yourself whether the bearing has rolling elements to it ? If so, are they ball, needle or roller and then refer to our pictures above to find the nearest looking image.

You could always send us some photos by email or whatsapp (+447890742392) of the bearing that you have, we can then use our industry knowledge to ask you the relevant questions to help identify the type of bearing that you have and once we know the style we can start to narrow things down. If you don’t have access to a camera to send us a photo then you could always send the bearing to us and let us identify the bearing type for you. Quite often this is the most accurate way of ensuring that you end up with the right replacement bearing.