• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Bearing Tips

Ball Bearings, Roller Bearings, Thrust Bearings, Tapered Bearings

  • Bearing Basics
  • Ball Bearings
  • Roller Bearings
  • Thrust Bearings
    • Ball Thrust
    • Roller Thrust
    • Tapered Roller Bearings
  • Lubrication
  • Resources
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Suppliers
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
You are here: Home / FAQs / Pillow block housing materials

Pillow block housing materials

February 21, 2017 By Mike Santora

By Joyce Laird, contributing editor

Pillow block housings typically have two bolt holes for mounting to a support surface with threaded fasteners. The bolt holes vary for different housing designs and materials. SKF pillow block bearing units are available as standard in a wide variety of designs and materials.

Cast iron is the typical pillow block housing material. They usually have oblong bolt holes (fig. 1) for ease of setting. Cast iron pillow block housings provide adequate support for a range of applied loads and enable the bearing units to be relubricated through a grease fitting. This makes them especially suitable for bearing arrangements that operate under any of the following conditions:

high levels of contamination
high speeds
high temperatures
relatively heavy loads

fig 10
fig. 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Composite pillow block housings (fig. 2) are made of lightweight glass fiber reinforced PA6. For durability, mechanical strength and thermal stability, these units are reinforced with a “molded in” steel coil and the two oblong attachment bolt holes are reinforced with zinc-coated steel inserts. Composite pillow block units are particularly well-suited for applications with relatively high speeds, moderate loads and where reliability and minimal maintenance are key factors.

fig 11
fig.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pressed steel pillow block housings (fig. 3) are made of sheet steel and are zinc-coated for corrosion protection. They are designed for simple applications with limited loads and speeds. These housings have no relubrication feature.

fig 12
fig. 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

SKF
www.skf.com/us

Filed Under: FAQs, Featured Tagged With: SKF

Primary Sidebar

Search

RSS Featured White Papers

  • Polymers Outperform Metals In Precision Gearing
  • Crossed Roller Bearings Offer Many Benefits for Robotic Systems
  • Miniature Linear Bearings Offer Maximum Performance

Footer

Bearing Tips

Design World Network

Design World Online
The Robot Report
Coupling Tips
Motion Control Tips
Linear Motion Tips
Fastener Engineering
Wire and Cable Tips

Bearing Tips

Subscribe to our newsletter
Advertise with us
Contact us
About us

Copyright © 2025 · WTWH Media LLC and its licensors. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media.

Privacy Policy