Frequently asked questions – igubal® spherical bearings

There is a range of materials that the igubal® range can be made of  so it depends on the application. The standard housing is igumid G and the balls tend to be iglidur® J or W300. However there are a large range of materials available.

This depends on the application however, they have a high tensile strength and can take on high radial loads.

Yes, bespoke sizes can be machined from our plastic rods or plates. The customer would need to supply a drawing of this. Find out more here.

Yes, igubal® can be used under water but the pressed-in housings, i.e the KGLM & EGLM range may swell and this could be detrimental to the ball movement.

Despite the housing design of the E range being narrower, the ball design in the K range is wider which enables a larger tilting angle.

As standard it is. We can make bespoke ones on request. Find out more about possibilities of custom parts here.

The variation of the movement is down to the production process:

Clips- These balls added with a clip in process. This is cheaper and we can offer a variation of ball materials.

Overmolding- This process means the balls are soaked, over moulded and then dried. Sometimes the balls are not completely round at the time of the drying process as this is hard to control. Only W300 is over moulded, limiting the ball selection.

The weakest part of a rod end is not the thread as long as it has been screwed in sufficiently. We tend to find that if the rod ends break it is at the 10 o’clock position.

There are various possible ways of securing them:

• A circlip ring- you will need to add a groove into the shaft.
• A fixing collar- this will need to be screwed onto the shaft.
• Add a shoulder onto the shaft. i.e the shafts has a smaller diameter at the ends and cannot slip out of the bearings.

An oscillating movement is like a swinging action. A tilting movement is a pivot movement at an angle.

Find out more here.

The metal rod ends have 5 times the break strength, which although isn’t often a problem, it means we can combine our self-lubricating igubal® materials with the strength of the metal threads.

Currently, stainless steel and aluminium.

Absolutely. Find out more here.