STEEL FOR BEARING MANUFACTURING
It’s essential to get high-quality, wear and fatigue resistant steel for bearing manufacturing, and carrying bearing-grade steel is core to our mission at Sullivan. You’ll find various standard and specialty grades to fit your purpose, whether that’s flight critical, non-flight critical or requires a niche steel that combines multiple properties.
Our featured bearing steels
Steel in Bearing Manufacturing
When selecting steel for bearings, it’s important to choose a high-quality grade that won’t deform under pressure, as various low-carbon alloys on the market can. Though less expensive, using these low-grade steels can result in costly failures.
The ideal bearing steel has high wear resistance and high hardness following the proper heat treatment. Depending on the application, some bearings will need to maintain these characteristics at high temperatures or in corrosive environments. In these cases, a common, standard grade like SAE 52100 may not be the best choice and you might need to look into specialized steels that can fit your niche application.
Applications for Bearing Steel
Typical applications for bearing-grade steel include both rolling elements and raceways for the following bearing types:
- Ball bearings
- Roller bearings
- Taper roller bearings
- Needle roller bearings
Sullivan Steel carries grades suitable for all of these applications, under various performance conditions.
Bearing Steel at Sullivan
We’ve been in the bearing business since the 1980s, when we began as part of the Roller Bearing Company of America. Though our offerings have expanded since then, bearings are still core to our business, and almost every grade we carry can be used in at least some bearing applications. Many of our pros come from backgrounds in bearing or steel manufacturing and bring years of experience to the team to help you find the right grade.
Our Bearing Grades
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| M50 VAR and VIM-VAR | Aircraft engine bearings, helicopter rotor bearings; high stress, high temperature environments |
| BG-42Ⓡ | Critical bearings; high temperature, high corrosion environments |
| M50NiL | Aircraft bearings and gears; high temperature, high stress environments |
| XD15NWⓇ | High corrosion, high stress environments |
| XD16NⓇ | High stress, high temperature, high corrosion environments |
| 52100 VAR and VIM-VAR | Aircraft bearings where additional cleanliness is required |
| 440C | High hardness, moderately corrosive environments |
| 4340 VAR | High stress environments |
| CX13VDW | Stainless carburizing grade |
| GKHⓇW | Nitriding grade for a very wide range of applications |
| GKPⓇYW | Deep or fast nitriding grade up to 0.040” or 1mm |
| Nitriding 135M | Nitriding grade |
| 8620 | Carburizing aerospace and industrial applications |
| NC310YW | High strength carburizing grade |
Have questions about finding the proper steel for your bearing application? We can help — use the LiveChat feature to start talking now, or visit our contact page.
