Bearings

At Gearotic, we see a bearing only as a machined element that constrains releative motion to the desired motion, and reduces friction between the moving parts. So we developped a module for users to designe their own. Gearotic CAD now creates a variety of bearing types, all printable on 3D printers.

In the end, rotary bearings simply hold rotating components such as shafts or axles within a mechanical system, and can transfer axial and radial loads from the source of the load to the structure supporting it. Many types exist, but the simplest style of bearing is called the Plain Bearing. It consist of a shaft rotating in a hole. Now in the ball bearing and roller bearing world however, they’ve come to include multiple rollers to help roll and reduce sliding frictions. We’ve printed a few bearings ourseleves, results were fairly impressive in ABS or PLA, within a specific size range of course. A bit of backlash, but Not Bad for being plastic and for light loads.

Bearings in Gearotic CAD can only be used with a 3D printers, therefore no “Output” function other than STL’s.

Pictures above demonstratethe 3D capabilities within Gearotic to design ball or roller bearings to your specified size. These come with rigid edges to encapsulate ball or rollers inside the bearing and roll quite smoothly from our experience.

Gearotic Cad offers a multiple setting menu to allow that custom build to occur. These bearing are usually for functional, decorative or that all-in-one 3D print project need. The bearing once printed, comes out as one piece, they do not come apart, but work rather quite well once cleaned up from the 3D print