Needle Roller Bearings

• Needle roller and cage assemblies
• Drawn cup needle roller bearings
• Needle roller bearings with machined rings
• Alignment needle roller bearings
• Needle roller bearing inner rings
• Universal joint bearings

Needle roller bearings are roller bearings with cylindrical rollers that are small in diameter. In spite of their low cross section, needle roller bearings have a high load carrying capacity and are therefore extremely suitable for bearing arrangements where radial space is limited.

SKF supplies needle roller bearings in different designs and a wide range of sizes, which are appropriate for different applications. In addition to customized designs, they comprise the following types and components:

• needle roller and cage assemblies


Needle roller and cage assembly

• drawn cup needle roller bearings

with open ends



Drawn cup needle roller bearing with open ends

and with a closed end



Drawn cup needle roller bearing with a closed end

full complement with open ends



Full complement drawn cup needle roller bearingwith open ends

• needle roller bearings with machined rings

with flanges

• closure rings


Needle roller bearing with inserted closure rings (for bearings with Fw = 10 mm)

• or integral flanges on the outer ring


Needle roller bearing with integral outer ring flanges (for bearings with Fw = 12 mm)

• sealed


Needle roller bearing, sealed

• or not sealed
• and with inner ring


Needle roller bearing with an inner ring

• or without an inner ring


Needle roller bearing without an inner ring

without flanges on the outer ring, not sealed and with or without an inner ring



Needle roller bearing without flanges on the outer ring

• alignment needle roller bearings

with an inner ring



Alignment needle roller bearing with an inner ring

and without an inner ring



Alignment needle roller bearing without an inner ring

• inner rings for needle roller bearings



Needle roller bearing inner ring

• universal joint bearings


Universal joint bearing

• needle rollers
• Combined needle roller bearings

needle roller / angular contact ball bearings



Needle roller / angular contact ball bearing

needle roller / thrust ball bearings



Needle roller / thrust ball bearing

needle roller / cylindrical roller thrust bearings



Needle roller / cylindrical roller thrust bearing

• needle roller thrust bearings and bearing washers

needle roller and cage thrust assemblies and appropriate washers



Needle roller and cage thrust assembly

needle roller thrust bearings with a centring spigot and appropriate washers



Needle roller thrust bearing with a centring spigot

Needle rollers can be used to make full complement bearing arrangements for slow speed or oscillating applications. These compact bearing arrangements have a high load carrying capacity and are economical, provided the shaft and housing bore can serve as raceways. The cylindrical surface of the rollers is slightly relieved toward the roller ends to prevent damaging edge stresses.

For additional information about surface requirements for raceways, refer to the section Raceways on shafts and in housings. For assistance in designing full complement bearing arrangements or to calculate performance data for these bearing arrangements, contact the SKF application engineering service.

Tolerances SKF needle rollers are in accordance with ISO 3096:1996 Grade 2 for flat end needle rollers. SKF supplies needle rollers with the dimensional and form tolerances as listed in the table, where the preferred diameter deviations range from 0 to -7 �m.

The rollers are gauged according to their minimum and maximum deviation from the nominal diameter.

Needle rollers for each gauge are packed separately and the package is marked with the gauge limits, e.g. N/M2 or M2/M4, where M signifies minus and N zero. For a needle roller with a 2 mm nominal diameter and gauge limits M2/M4, the actual diameter is between 1,998 mm and 1,996 mm.

Note Needle rollers of the same gauge should be used in each bearing arrangement.

A delivery of needle rollers of the same nominal diameter may contain packages of one or more gauges, depending on availability at the time.

Materials SKF needle rollers made from carbon chromium steel with a hardness of 58 to 65 HRC and have a precision machined surface.

Supplementary designations The designation suffixes used to identify certain features of SKF needle rollers are explained in the following:

Needle roller bearings | Needle roller and cage assemblies | Drawn cup needle roller bearings | Needle roller bearings with machined rings | Alignment needle roller bearings | Needle roller bearing inner rings | Universal joint bearings |

Bearing terminology | Y-bearings | Deep groove ball bearings | Needle roller bearings | Combined cylindrical roller/taper roller bearings | Cylindrical roller bearings | Angular contact ball bearings | Combined needle roller bearings | Spherical roller bearings | Tapered roller bearings | Thrust ball bearings | CARB� toroidal roller bearings | Cylindrical roller thrust bearings | Angular contact thrust ball bearings | Tapered roller thrust bearings | Needle roller thrust bearings | Track runner bearings | Spherical roller thrust bearings | Indexing roller units | Backing bearings for cluster mills | Other SKF rolling bearings | Bearing accessories | Engineering products | Mechatronics