A rod end is an articulating joint typically used on the ends of control rods or tie rods where a clevis joint or ball joint is not precise enough or not capable of taking the loads involved in the application. Sometimes known as a heim joint or rose joint, it comprises a spherical bearing located in a housing with either a male or female thread to enable easy installation. A connecting bolt or shaft is located through the spherical bearing which allows for some angular misalignment.
Economy male rod end, K series. This is our most cost effective male rod end.
Economy female rod end, K series. This is our most cost effective female rod end.
Heavy duty rod end (male) with plain bearing. Maintenance-free K series, ideal for vibrating or shock load applications.
Heavy duty rod end with plain bearing. Maintenance-free K series, ideal for applications with vibrating or shock loads.
Stainless steel female rod end from our Economy range. Also available in zinc-plated steel (R3571).
Stainless steel female rod end from our Economy range. Also available in zinc-plated steel (R3570).
Stainless steel heavy duty female rod end with plain spherical bearing.
Stainless steel heavy duty male rod end with plain spherical bearing.
Heavy duty male rod end. E series rod end with a thinner profile width.
Heavy duty female rod end. E series rod end with a thinner profile width.
Used when an articulating joint is held within a housing and the threaded portion of a standard rod end is not required.
Female Rod Ends with studs; also available in stainless steel (R3613).
Stainless steel heavy duty female rod end with ball bearings in the raceway.
Stainless steel heavy-duty male rod end – E series.
Stainless steel heavy-duty female rod end – E series.
Heavy-duty male rod end with ball bearings in the raceway.
Heavy-duty female rod end with ball bearings in the raceway.
Male and female Rod End, maintenance free. These are our most popular range of Heavy-duty Rod Ends. Bore diameters 5mm up to 30mm.
R3640 is our lowest cost, most popular option spherical bearing. Stainless steel versions R3641 and R3642 requires maintenance. R3640, R3644, and stainless steel R3645 is maintenance free. Bore diameters 5mm up to 30mm.
Male and Female Rod Ends. Different bore sizes in relation to the thread size. All require maintenance. Bore diameters 6mm up to 30mm.
Male and Female Rod Ends maintenance free.
These are our most popular Male and Female Rod Ends. Maintenance free. Female-bore diameters 5mm up to 12mm. Male-bore diameters 5mm up to 16mm.
Steel and Stainless steel, Male and Female, maintenance free. Sizes M6 up to M16.
A Made from Poylamid-PTFE-fibreglass-compound, maintenance free, absorbs any foreign particles.
B Ball made of bearing steel, hardened, ground, polished and hard chromium plated, ensures reliable corrosion protection.
C No Clearance - radial clearance 0-10µm.
D All rod end housings made of forged steel, tempered, extremely high loads resistant.
A Radial clearance: 10-30µm, low friction
B Inner ring made of bearing steel, hardened ball grooves polished
C Shields on both sides protect against rough dirt penetration.
D All rod ends housings are made of forged steel, case hardened bearing race.
E Low maintenance due to long-term greasing, especially suitable for high speed large swiveling angles or rotating movements
Most of our Rod Ends are available in stainless steel as standard. High grade AISI 316 stainless steel available on request.
The static load capacity C0 is the radially acting static load which does not cause any permanent deformation of the components when the spherical bearing or rod end is stationary, (i.e. the load condition without pivoting, swivelling or tilting movements). It is also a precondition here that the operating temperature must be at normal room temperature and the surrounding components must possess sufficient stability.
The values specified in the tables are determined by static tension tests on a representative number of series components at 20°C normal room temperature. The static load capacity may vary with lower or higher temperature depending on the material. In the case of all rod ends with plain bearings, the static load rating refers to the maximum permissible static load of the rod end housing in a tensile direction up to which no permanent deformation occurs at the weakest housing cross-section. The value in the product tables has a safety factor of 1.2 times the tensile strength of the rod ends housing material.
For our rod ends with roller and ball bearings, the static load rating is the load at which the bearing can operate at room temperature without its performance being impaired as a result of deformations, fracture, or damage to the sliding contact surfaces (max 1/10,000th of the ball diameter).
Dynamic load ratings serve as values for calculation of the service life of dynamically-loaded spherical bearings and rod ends. The values themselves do not provide any information about the effective dynamic load capacity of the spherical bearing or rod end. To obtain this information, it is necessary to take into account the additional influencing factors such as load type, swivel or tilt angle, speed characteristic, max. permitted bearing clearance, max. permitted bearing friction, lubrication conditions and temperature, etc.
Dynamic load capacities depend on the definition used to calculate them. Comparison of values is not always possible owing to the different definitions used by various manufacturers, and because the load capacities are often determined under completely different test conditions.
For our rod ends with roller and ball bearings, the dynamic load capacity is the load at which 90% of a large quantity of identical rod ends reach 1 million revolutions before they fail (due to fatigue of the rolling surfaces.)
Heavy-duty ball and roller bearin rod ends can be used for operating temperatures between -20oC and +120oC. The temperature range of heavy-duty rod ends with integral spherical plain bearing is between -30oC and +60oC, without affecting the load capacity. Higher temperatures will reduce the load capacity taken into account for the calculation of the 'working life' under the temperature factor C2 on page 116.
The decisive parameters for the selection and calculation of heavy-duty rod ends are size, direction and type of load
The heavy-duty rod ends have been especially designed to cope with high radial loads. They can be used for combined loads, theaxial load share of which does not exceed 20% of the corresponding radial load.
In this case the load acts only in the same direction, which means that the load area is always in the same bearing section.
In case of alternating loads, the load areas facing each other are alternately loaded and/or relieved, which means that the load changes its direction constantly by approximately 180o.
Radial or combined loads
Unilaterally acting load
Alternately acting load
The swivelling angle is the movement of the rod end from one final position to the other. Half the swivelling angle a3 is used to calculate the service of 'working life'.
Thje anfle of tilt, also called setting angle, refers to the movement of the joint ball and/or the inner ring to the rod end axis (in degrees). The tilting angle (a) indicated in the table for the heavy-duty ball and roller bearing rod ends corresponds to the maximum possible movement being limited by the shields on both sides.
It is important that this tilting angle is not exceeded either during installation or operation, as operation, as otherwise the shields may be damaged. For heavy-duty plain bearing rod encds a distiction is made between the tilting angles (a1 and a2).
If the movement is not limited by adjacent components, then angle a1 can fully be used without affecting the rod end capacity. Tilting angle a2 is the movement limit when connecting a forked component.
The term ‘nominal service life’ is used for heavy-duty ball and roller bearing rod ends and represents the number of swivelling motions or rotations and/or the number of service hours the rod end performs before showing the first signs of material fatigue on the raceway or roller bodies. In view of many factors that are difficult or impossible to assess, the service life of several apparently identical bearings differ under the same operating conditions.
For this reason, the following method for the service life determination of heavy-duty ball and roller rod ends results in a nominal service life being achieved or exceeded by at least 90% of a large quantity of identical rod ends.
The term ‘working life’ is used with heavy-duty plain bearing rod ends. It represents the number of swivelling motions or rotations and/ or the number of service hours the heavy duty plain bearing rod end performs before becoming unserviceable due to material fatigue, wear, increased bearing clearance or increase of the bearing friction moment.
The ‘working life’ is not only influenced by the size and the type of load, it is also affected by a number of factors, which are difficult to assess. A calculation of the exact service life is therefore impossible. Field-experienced standard values for the approximate ‘working life’ can nevertheless be determined by using the following calculation procedure which is based on numerous results from endurance test runs and values from decades of experience. The values determined by this formula are achieved, if not exceeded, by the majority of the heavy-duty rod ends.
R3550, R3551, R3556, R3557, R3561, R3562, R3563, R3564, R3565, R3566, R3610, R3611, R35613, R3616
d1Over | d1icl. | d1mp Tolerance LimitUpper | d1mp Tolerance LimitLower | Vd1pMax. | Vd1mpMax. | b1s Tolerance LimitUpper | b1s Tolerance LimitLower | hs, h1s, h2s Tolerance LimitUpper | hs, h1s, h2s Tolerance LimitLower |
6 | +0,012 | 0 | 0,012 | 0,009 | 0 | -0,12 | +0,8 | -1,2 | |
6 | 10 | +0,015 | 0 | 0,015 | 0,011 | 0 | -0,12 | +0,8 | -1,2 |
10 | 18 | +0,018 | 0 | 0,018 | 0,014 | 0 | -0,12 | +1,0 | -1,7 |
18 | 30 | +0,021 | 0 | 0,021 | 0,016 | 0 | -0,12 | +1,4 | -2,1 |
30 | 50 | +0,025 | 0 | 0,025 | 0,019 | 0 | -0,12 | +1,4 | -2,7 |
R3553, R3554, R3559, R3560, R3567, R3568
d1Over | d1icl. | d1mp Tolerance LimitUpper | d1mp Tolerance LimitLower | Vd1pMax. | Vd1mpMax. | b1s Tolerance LimitUpper | b1s Tolerance LimitLower | hs, h1s, h2s Tolerance LimitUpper | hs, h1s, h2s Tolerance LimitLower |
10 | +0,002 | -0,010 | 0,008 | 0,006 | 0 | -0,12 | +0,8 | -1,2 | |
10 | 18 | +0,003 | -0,011 | 0,008 | 0,006 | 0 | -0,12 | +0,8 | -1,2 |
18 | 30 | +0,003 | -0,013 | 0,010 | 0,008 | 0 | -0,12 | +1,0 | -1,7 |
30 | 50 | +0,003 | -0,015 | 0,012 | 0,009 | 0 | -0,12 | +1,4 | -2,1 |
50 | 80 | +0,004 | -0,019 | 0,015 | 0,011 | 0 | -0,15 | +1,8 | -2,7 |
d1 = Nominal bore diameter of the inner ring or joint ball
d1mp = mean bore diameter deviation in one plane, arithmetical mean of the largest and smallest bore diameter
Vd1p = Bore diameter variation in one plane, difference between the largest and smallest bore diameter.
Vd1mp of = Mean bore diameter variation, difference between the largest and smallest bore diameter. One inner ring or joint ball.
b18 = Singe inner ring or joint ball width deviation
h, h1, h2 = Single length from the inner ring or ball bore centre to shank end
h8 h18 h82 = Single length variation of a single rod end
What are Rod Ends used for?
Rod ends are typically used to connect the ends of control rods, tie rods for the purposes of mechanical control. Helping to achieve precisely controlled motion in articulating mechanisms without damaging deflections or misalignment, rod ends provide an extremely effective point-to-point contact with the center of rotation lying on the axis of both attached shafts.
What's the difference between Male and Female Rod Ends?
Rod ends are classified as either male or female, with both options allowing different mounting approaches in different applications. Male rod ends feature external threads whilst female rod ends have internal threads. Left-hand and right-hand threads are also available. For expert technical support and advise please contact us today.
What are the advantages of Rod Ends?
Rod ends are extremely robust and our steel rod ends are able to withstand high static load capacities and dissipate heat more efficiently. Rod ends are perfectly suited to all types of motion, including rotating, oscillating, and linear.
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