Everyone knows that bearings play an essential role in the overall performance of a machine. They are used in every segment of the market: industrial, automotive, marine, construction, agricultural and many more. Bearings are used for a wide range of reasons and there is no limit to the number of applications for which they could be used in your industry or business enterprise.

“Bearings” are a type of mechanical part, but do you know what they do? They are, in fact, so fundamental to the machine industry that they have been called the industry’s “bread and butter”. They are used in all sorts of machines, but because they do their work in the shadows, most people who aren’t involved in the machine industry probably hear the word and think “What’s that?”

What are bearings?

• Bearings are “parts that assist objects’ rotation”. They support the shaft that rotates inside the machinery.
• Machines that use bearings include automobiles, airplanes, electric generators[#V3] , refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and air-conditioners. They are even used in household appliances that we all use every day, such as refrigerators, vacuum cleaners and air-conditioners.
• They support the rotating shafts of the wheels, gears, turbines, rotors, blenders, bicycles in those machines, allowing them to rotate more smoothly.
• In this way, all sorts of machines require many shafts for rotation, which means bearings are almost always used, to the point where they have become known as “the bread and butter of the machine industry”. At first glance, it  may seem like simple mechanical parts, but we cannot survive without them.

How widely are bearings used? What would we do without them?

Let’s ask ourselves just how much our daily lives are dependent on bearings. You don’t normally see them so it’s a bit difficult to imagine, right? Let’s talk a bit about cars, since those are something we all know.

When you were a child, you probably played with an electric toy race car set at least once, right? You might remember that the bearings where the wheels were attached.

But what about real cars? Just how many bearings does a single car require?

① Equipment (parts) for generating driving force

Examples: Alternators, turbochargers

② Equipment (parts) for steering

Examples: Steering gears, pumps

③ Equipment (parts) for transmitting driving force

Examples: Transmissions, differential gears

④ Equipment (parts) for driving the car

Examples: Wheels, suspension

Conclusion:

Bearings play a crucial role in our daily lives, but it is precisely because of their importance that we must constantly strive to make them more precise and durable.

Additionally, it is vital to the development of machine technology that we continue going forward to develop bearings that can work under ever harsher and more specialized conditions.

Bearings will no doubt continue to evolve and change, and to improve our livelihoods by “making the world go round”