Talk:Wheel bearing
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Can anyone tell me what the difference between wheel bearings and axle bearings is???
Wheel bearings allow the wheel to freely turn on a stationary axle (most usually called a spindle) whereas axle bearings allow an entire wheel-axle assembly to turn together. A wheel bearing is associated with a non-driven wheel while an axle bearing is associated with a driven (powered) wheel.
[edit] Wheel bearings and axle bearings
A wheel consists of a hub that turns on an axle which may be fitted with a set of bearings which have been specially designed to accommodate the loads that the wheel is subjected to, which are the weight of the vehicle and its load on each wheel and the bending moments and lateral forces that the wheel and the hub are subjected to and in turn subject the axle to when the vehicle takes a turn at speed or when the tyre bumps an object on the road. Wheel bearings are designed to accommodate all the requirements needed for this situation.
Axles forming part of stationary equipment are not normally subjected to the full range of situations that a wheel is subjected to and their bearing are designed to carry the weight bearing down on the axle and thrust bearings may be used in combination if there is any axial thrust in the axle.Gregorydavid 19:38, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Slewing bearings
These bearings are normally designed like thrust bearings and they often rotate around a vertical axis. Depending on the weight of the equipment that they carry they are also designed to accommodate a bending or twisting moment. The design performance of slewing bearings is often plotted on a graph so that designers can determine the suitability of a specific slewing bearing to the application. The slewing bearings used on the Falkirk Wheel rotate about a horisontal axis an in some respects the configuration is like that of a set of wheel bearings.Gregorydavid 19:38, 15 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Copyeditting
This article reads like a car repair manual and not an encyclopedia article -- Whpq 14:25, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
