GE ES Series Spherical Plain Bearings conform to DIN ISO 12240-1 series K / DIN 648 series E, which fixes their boundary dimensions. As plain & spherical plain bearings, they are specified by designation plus three things the designation does not carry: internal clearance, seal type and cage material. All three are covered below.
What Are GE ES Series Spherical Plain Bearings?
GE ES Series Spherical Plain Bearings are plain & spherical plain bearings defined by DIN ISO 12240-1 series K / DIN 648 series E. They are selected by bearing designation and the dimensional characteristics shown below. Material, cage and sealing are specified separately from the designation and are covered further down this page.
Materials & Cage
Plain bearings are specified by the sliding pair, not by a hardness class. Wrapped bronze (CuSn8) and cast bronze (CuSn10, CuAl10Ni5Fe4) need lubrication and tolerate edge loading; sintered bronze is oil impregnated and self-lubricating at low load; PTFE-lined steel-backed composite runs dry and is the maintenance-free default; graphite-plugged bronze covers high load at low speed and high temperature. State the load, the sliding speed, the temperature and whether lubrication is available — the PV limit, not the material name, is the selection criterion.
Typical Applications
Hydraulic cylinder eyes, linkages, steering and construction equipment — oscillating or slow motion under high static load, with no rolling elements to brinell. Read the full application guide for GE ES Series Spherical Plain Bearings →
Pricing
GE ES Series Spherical Plain Bearings are supplied to order. Pricing starts from approximately US$6.00 per piece for standard bore sizes in the standard steel-on-steel construction; final pricing depends on size, material, finish and order quantity (MOQ applies). Submit your exact configuration with the quote form above.
Specifying the GE ES Series Spherical Plain Bearings
The sizes specified most often from this range are 70 mm bore, 80 mm bore, 90 mm bore and 100 mm bore. Each has its own page, so a drawing can be checked against one bore without reading the whole table above.
Material changes what this bearing tolerates far more than it changes what it costs. PTFE Composite set out the trade-off for each grade in the same terms.
For the machines and duties this type is actually specified for, see where ge es series spherical plain bearings are fitted.
Manufactured in our own plant
This bearing is forged, hardened, ground, superfinished and clearance-set in-house. The stages below are where its tolerance class, its internal clearance and its noise grade are actually decided.
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01 Forging & turning
GCr15 bar and tube is cut, heated and forged into ring blanks, then turned to leave a uniform grinding allowance. Forging rather than machining from solid keeps the grain flow following the raceway, which is the surface that eventually fails.
Blank dimensions and grinding stock checked at set-up and per shift.
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02 Heat treatment
Through-hardening brings GCr15 / 100Cr6 to 58–64 HRC; carburizing case-hardens 20CrMnTi where the section is heavy or the load is shock. Rings are then stabilized so they hold size in service rather than growing in the housing.
Core and surface hardness per lot; retained austenite and dimensional stability to the ordered temperature class.
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03 Raceway grinding
Faces, bore, outer diameter and raceway are ground in sequence on separate machines. This is where the tolerance class is created: P0, P6, P5 or P4 is a grinding outcome, not a sorting outcome.
Bore and outer diameter deviation, raceway roundness and face runout measured to ISO 492 on every setup.
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04 Honing & superfinishing
The ground raceway is honed to remove the grinding lay and bring surface roughness down to a fraction of a micrometre. Raceway finish is what decides whether a lubricant film forms, and therefore what decides bearing life far more than the load rating alone.
Surface roughness Ra and waviness measured per lot.