Tokyo, Japan, On August 30, 2011 NSK Ltd. announced that it has developed a long-life, high-reliability cage-equipped thrust ball bearing for application in hydraulic static transmissions (HST) in agricultural machinery. The new bearing has twice the life of conventional thrust bearings, which will help to lengthen the useful life of agricultural machinery. NSK is targeting 1 billion yen in HST-purposed thrust bearing sales in 2016.


NSK thrust ball bearings HST is the most common transmission used for agricultural machinery. However, as the power output levels have increased, the load on the thrust ball bearings has also increased, which in turn has created an increased demand for long-life, high-reliability bearings.

Application of the following long-life technologies has made it possible to more than double the conventional life of the bearing.


Material Technology
Spalling occurs when a large load is applied to conventional parts. The new NSK bearing uses EP steel, which is strong against sub-surface fatigue, for the inner and outer races.
Application of a high-reliability cage
The conventional cage incurred large levels of cage load and repeated stress when ball lag occurred, which in turn would sometimes result in fracturing of the steel cage. As a countermeasure to this, the new bearing utilizes a plastic cage, which is resistant to repeated stress, to further increase the reliability of the cage under high load conditions.


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