ENGINEERING FOR AIRFRAME CONTROL AND BALL BEARING ROD ENDS - RBC Bearings - #1

RBC Airframe (or Aircraft) Control Bearings and RBC Ball Bearing Rod Ends are manufactured in compliance to U.S. Government and Aerospace Industry Standards and Specifications.

Airframe Control Bearings and Ball Bearing Rod Ends are of lightweight design, corrosion protected, grease-lubricated, and typically sealed. Although designed and manufactured under demanding quality control requirements for airborne systems, these bearings have been successfully used in other fields of application, where motions are mainly oscillatory and/or with limited rotation.

RBC supplies airframe control bearings both in "Standard" and "Precision" series. The prefix "M" in a bearing number indicates that it is of a precision series. RBC supplies Ball Bearing Rod Ends as a "Precision" series.

Rings and balls are made of hardened bearing alloy, AISI 52100, with all exposed surfaces except bearing bore cadmium or zinc nickel plated for corrosion protection.

For improved corrosion protection, RBC also supplies bearings made of hardened stainless steel alloy, AISI 440C. This alloy may, in addition, be passivated, cadmium plated or zinc nickel plated for enhanced corrosion protection.

On Ball Bearing Rod Ends the outer rod body is made of a selectively hardened AISI 8620 or RBC AeroCres© Fracture-Tough material. AeroCres Fracture-Tough Airframe Products use a specialized carburized stainless steel. RBC has developed and optimized the heat treatment process resulting in a homogeneous microstructure — delivering both corrosion protection and core fracture toughness.

Please refer to the Engineering Section for specific useful information on bearing performance characteristics as for load rating, installation and application.

Tabulated performance data provided in this catalog are guidelines only. Rotational load ratings listed are calculated assuming intermittent slow rotation. When selecting bearings, the loads, motion modes of oscillation or rotation, and speeds must be taken into account.

We strongly recommend that you consult RBC before finalizing your selection especially when considering a full complement airframe control or rod end bearing for continuous rotational application.

RBC Airframe Control and Rod End Bearings offer the following key design features

• Inch and Metric Sizes with final as-plated dimensions.

• Corrosion Resistance available with stainless steel and/or cadmium plated alloy steels on all exposed surfaces except bore and seals. RBC also offers other corrosion resistant plated materials, which include zinc nickel plated alloy steels and RBC AeroCres Fracture-Tough airframe products.

• High load capacities in a compact, lightweight design.

• Inert PTFE (Teflon®) seals standard on most sizes.

• Extended inner rings eliminate the need for spacers.

• Bearings with suffix FS428 are prepacked with lubricant conforming to specification MIL-G-23827 and BMS3-33 and are equipped with PTFE seals.

• Bearings with suffix FS464 are prepacked 80% to 100% with lubricant comforming to specification MIL-G-81322 and are equipped with PTFE seals.

• Most self-aligning designs permit up to 10° misalignment in either direction.

• RBC airframe control ball bearings conform to SAE-AS7949 (formerly MIL-B-7949) and all major OEM specifications.

• RBC ball bearing rod ends conform to SAE-AS6039 (formerly MIL-B-6039) and OEM specifications.

• NSA Ball Bearing Rod Ends.

Bearings listed herein are tabulated in two groups: (1) full-complement bearings, which have no ball separators (retainers or cages); and, (2) bearings with ball-separator (ball-retainers or ball-cages). As noted before, the full-complement bearings should be used in applications where the motion is mainly oscillatory; whereas, the bearings with ball-separators may be used in applications where the motion may be continuous rotation or oscillatory under relatively light loads.

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