Needle Bearings for Drivetrain

[FrankJ]

Igus has a lot of application information on their web site. If you notice the kit of parts Igus AL shaft has an hard anodized coating. It helps with friction & wear.

Both bushings & needle bearings will need some kind of thrust bearing to adsorb the axial load. Simplest case is a washer.

Rolling bearings like ball & needle need hardened races because the high contact pressures. Bushing have considerably lower contact pressure & generally have one hard & one relatively softer surface. Oil lubricated plain bearings (bushings) are a completely different animal since the sliding surfaces are not suppose to contact each other.

[FenixPheonix]

Thanks for the input, all. I'll continue doing some looking into these. It sounds like bushings, of both the Igus and bronze variety, might be worth a shot.

Before anyone asks, though, don't expect to see 751 with plastic bushings and custom 2.5" wheels. We're still trying to get WCD up and running, we're not ready to play around too much with the base design yet (and doing custom wheels wouldn't be fun without CNC. Rotary table time! Hmm, this merits thought...) This is purely a personal project for fun, and is currently entirely theoretical. If I've got time this summer, I'll see about putting together some prototypes to submit to the team. I'll try to get a CAD together in the next couple of days.

Could I use a flanged bushing instead of having a thrust washer or bearing?

[MrForbes]

igus makes flanged bushings, that's one reason I suggested them.

Be sure to read all the application data and load specs and speed ratings, to make sure they would work.

[AdamHeard]

Needle bearings would work, as beaten to death already in this thread, but would need a separate thrust provision (ideally a thrust bearing if efficiency is important to you).

We've talked about trying needles to make a smaller west coast drive, but the rework required wasn't worth it to us.

I see no reason whatsoever to deviate from a standard ball bearing setup for a west coast, the suggested options of bushings are less efficient by a good deal. Look at 254's bearing blocks, our bearing blocks and maybe the team 221 bearing blocks for inspiration.