Needle roller thrust bearings are equipped with a shaped cage that can reliably fix and guide a large number of needle rollers. Needle roller thrust bearings provide very high stiffness in a very small axial space. In applications where adjacent machine component surfaces can be used as raceways, needle roller thrust bearings take up less space than traditional thrust washers.
The needle rollers have extremely small diameter deviations within a single assembly, thus enabling these bearings to withstand heavy axial and shock loads.
To prevent stress peaks, the ends of the needle roller are slightly contracted to change the line contact between the raceway and the needle roller.
