| 摘要 |
A primarily radial load ball bearing includes an assembly of outer and inner races having confronting raceways for a plurality of balls, and a unitary ball separator fabricated of a moldable material such as nylon. The separator is a ring-shaped member having an annular base, and having annularly spaced fingers projecting axially from the base to provide annularly spaced ball pockets. The separator is configured to be received between the races to separate and space the bearing balls in the bearing. The wall surfaces of the ball pockets are made up of a plurality of adjacent surface segments, which segments may be planar, cylindrical or spherical and which are configured to provide ball contact areas and to provide recesses between and adjacent to those ball contact areas for retaining lubricating grease. The surface segments may be arranged sequentially around the circumference of the pocket, may be circumferentially extending segments arranged side-by-side, or may present a checker work of segments defining the pocket surface. For each configuration, the effective diameter of the pocket is slightly larger than that of the ball retained therein to provide minimal clearance with the ball.
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