What are the tolerance classes for bearings?
Tolerance classes for ball bearings are defined by a committee within the ABMA known as the “Annular Bearings Engineers Committee” (ABEC). These tolerances are commonly referred to as ABEC rating, or grade. Tolerance classes for roller bearings are covered by the RBEC classifications contained within the same standard. These classes are defined in ABMA standard 20 – Radial Bearings of Ball, Cylindrical Roller, and Spherical Roller Types and ABMA standards 12.1 and 12.2 – Instrument Ball Bearings. The ABEC (and RBEC) tolerance classifications specify both tolerances of size and form for the individual inner and outer rings. The critical features of the rings include the bore (or inner diameter of the inner ring), the outer diameter of the outer ring, the ring widths, and the raceways of each ring. Tolerances of form include roundness, taper, runout, and parallelism.
| ANSI Standard 20 | ISO 492 | DIN 620 |
|---|---|---|
| ABEC 1 | Class Normal | P0 |
| ABEC 3 | Class 6 | P6 |
| ABEC 5 | Class 5 | P5 |
| ABEC 7 | Class 4 | P4 |
| ABEC 9 | Class 2 | P2 |
