INA Plain bearings from Schaeffler are used under high specific loads and various possible types of motion, from swivel type motion to overlaid motion. They are ideally suited to intermittent operation occurring on a periodic or non-periodic basis.

The INA plain bearings are bearings for very small radial or axial design envelopes where high load carrying capacity is nevertheless required. They can also be used under vibration coinciding with small amounts of motion. The bearings offer excellent damping characteristics especially under static loading, such as those required under shock loads.

Many of the INA plain bearings are destined for maintenance-free applications and in cases where long rating values are required.

INA Plain bearings from Schaeffler are available in various bearing types, designs and sizes as well as with different plain bearing materials.

Selection of the suitable INA plain bearing is dependent principally on the requirements of the application. These include:

• load conditions
  • type of load
  • direction of load
  • magnitude of load
• motion conditions
  • type of motion
  • direction of motion
  • frequency of motion
• adjacent construction
  • available design envelope
  • shaft, housing
• rating life requirement
• environmental influences
  • temperature
  • influence of media
  • contamination
  • lubrication.

Selection by INA plain bearing type

Depending on the type of plain bearing and the typical geometrical structure in the particular case, there are different possibilities for support of load and degrees of freedom of motion. Some bearing types facilitate additional functions such as the compensation of angular misalignment, see table as follows.

Bearing type	Load			Motion			Compensation of angular misalignments
Bush	Y	-	-	Y	-	Y	-
Flanged bush	Y	Y	-	Y	-	-	-
Thrust washer	-	Y	-	Y	-	-	-
Radial spherical plain bearing, rod end	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	-	Y
Angular contact spherical plain bearing	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	-	Y
Axial spherical plain bearing	Y	Y	-	Y	Y	-	Y

Selection of the suitable spherical plain bearing for combined load is dependent on the ratio between the radial and axial force

Sizes of INA plain bearing types

The catalogue range of plain bearings from Schaeffler covers a range of shaft diameters from 3 mm to 1000 mm, see table as below. The size required is dependent principally on the adjacent construction and the loads to be supported.