Tutorial : How to design a ball bearing in SolidWorks and show design intent?

Krutin Rajani

10 May, 2013 01:56 PM

the link to the model is : Bearing

1. Step 1:

   Open a new part and create the following sketch on a plane.then revolve it around a center axis.
   

   

2. Step 2:

   this will create the basic outer housing of a ball bearing.
   

   

3. Step 3:

   on the plane passing through the center make the following sketch. the circle touches the inner curved surface.the number of spokes corresponds to the number of the ball which will be inserted.
   

   

4. Step 4:

   this will create the following outer housing
   

   

5. Step 5:

   in a new part we will create the inner housing of the bearing. for that create the following sketch and revolve it around the central axis.
   

   

6. Step 6:

   for the shaft to have a grip we creates grooves in the inner housing.for that make following sketch and cut it
   

   

7. Step 7:

   you can make two grooves by using mirror feature(optional)
   

   

8. Step 8:

   this creates the inner housing for the ball bearing.now its time to create the ball. for that in a new part create a semicircle and revolve it as follows.
   

   

9. Step 9:

   in the central plane of the ball create the following sketch.this will be helpfull for mating in the assembly.
   

   

10. Step 10:

    open a new assembly.insert the outer and inner housing in it. mate their respective planes and their central axis to make them concentric and lie in same plane. for this you will require two coincident mates(for making them in same plane and for making them concentric).
    

    

11. Step 11:

    insert the balls.(i am inserting 8 balls which can vary as your wish)
    

    

12. Step 12:

    now mate one of the marked point in the all with the arc in the outer housing with the coincident mate..
    

    

13. Step 13:

    then mate the two axis using coincident mate to align it properly.
    

    

14. Step 14:

    mate all the balls similarly.
    

    

15. Step 15:

    hide the excess lines to make it look good.
    

    

16. Step 16:

    you can also add an animation using this when using this in any further assembly.

17. Step 17:

    important thing is that "radius of the arc created on the outer housing should be equal to the sum of the ball diameter and radius of the inner surface of the inner housing". else the balls will mesh into the housing.