IKO GE15EC Spherical Plain Bearing, Maintenance-Free, Without Seals, 15 mm Bore

This page covers the IKO GE..EC maintenance-free spherical plain bearings (spherical bushings) without seals for 15 to 25 mm shafts: GE15EC, GE17EC, GE20EC and GE25EC. Choose the shaft size from the drop-down; each variant has its own dimensions, load capacities and mass in the Model Details.

GE..EC is a maintenance-free type. It has an outer ring with a special PTFE liner reinforced with copper alloy meshes on the sliding surface, and a spherical inner ring with a hard chromium plated sliding surface. Creep deformation under compressive load is small and wear resistance is superior, so it can run for extended periods without re-lubrication. It has the same boundary dimensions as the GE..ES type. No oil hole is provided.

Where this product is used

• Machines where the use of oil is undesirable, such as food processing machines
• Joints where lubrication is not possible
• Construction machinery
• Mountings where the load acts mainly in one direction (fixed directional loads)

Features

• Maintenance-free: special PTFE liner reinforced with copper alloy meshes in the outer ring and a hard chromium plated inner ring, so no lubrication is needed
• Self-aligning spherical sliding surfaces that carry a radial load and a bi-directional axial load at the same time
• Without seals; the sealed GE..EC-2RS starts at 30 mm
• No oil hole
• Dynamic load capacity Cd 19.4 to 55.7 kN and static load capacity Cs 48.5 to 139 kN across the 4 sizes on this page
• Permissible tilting angle 7 to 10°

Key specifications

Available sizes

Selecting the right option

The drop-down is the shaft diameter in mm, which is the bore of the bearing: the number in the part number is the bore size (for example GE15EC has a 15 mm bore). Every size on this page is a metric size.

GE..EC without seals covers the 15 to 25 mm bores here; the 30 to 70 mm sizes are the sealed GE..EC-2RS type on a separate page. At the same bore, the EC type has the same outside diameter, widths and dynamic load capacity Cd as the GE..ES type and a lower static load capacity Cs.

Steel-on-steel or maintenance-free is chosen from the operating conditions: load, lubrication, temperature and sliding velocity. This is a maintenance-free type, suited to fixed directional loads where oil is undesirable or lubrication is not possible. If you are unsure, send AIMS the load, motion and environment and we will help you choose.

Fitting and use

Recommended fits for maintenance-free bushings: shaft h6 or j6 with housing bore H7, J7 or K7. K7 is recommended for light metal housings.

When the load is large, the shaft can slip in the inner ring bore: prepare the shaft to a hardness of 58 HRC or greater and a surface roughness of 0.8 μm Ra or less.

When mounting, set the split plane of the outer ring at right angles to the direction of the load, so that the load does not act on the split.

Maintenance-free bushings do not need lubrication. Supplying lithium soap based grease before operation can extend the life, and filling the area around the bearing with grease helps protect it from foreign substances and corrosion.

For maintenance-free bushings the recommended load is up to Cd for a constant load and up to 0.5 x Cd for an alternate load. Radial and axial loads can act together. The equivalent radial load is P = Fr + Y x Fa, where Y is 1, 2 and 3 for an Fa/Fr of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3; an Fa/Fr above 0.3 is marked unusable for the maintenance-free type.

The maximum allowable temperature of maintenance-free bushings without seals is +150 °C. The dynamic load capacity is multiplied by a temperature factor ft: 1 up to +90 °C, 0.9 from +90 to +100 °C, 0.75 from +100 to +120 °C and 0.55 from +120 to +150 °C.

Cd is the dynamic load capacity (the maximum allowable load under oscillating motion, based on the contact pressure on the spherical surfaces) and Cs is the static load capacity.

Related products

Other IKO spherical plain bearing pages: GE..EC-2RS maintenance-free sealed spherical plain bearings (30 to 70 mm bore) and GE..ES-2RS steel-on-steel sealed spherical plain bearings.