Sending a Bearing Drawing: The Checklist
A custom bearing is priced from its drawing, and drawings fail in predictable places. Here are the points a drawing must settle before it travels.
Why drawings come back with questions
The custom bearing line works from drawings and samples, and the work is priced from what the drawing settles. In practice, drawings return with questions for a short list of recurring reasons: a dimension set with one member missing, a material named for the old part but not the new duty, sealing left to be assumed, or a performance point the designer knew and the drawing never said. Every point below is one of those returned questions, written down in advance. A drawing that answers them is priced in one pass; a drawing that does not is priced in two, and the second pass is where schedules go.
The dimension set: bore, outside diameter, width, flange
Four dimensions define a bearing's envelope, and the custom frame names them: bore, outside diameter, width, and the flange where the design has one — its diameter and width alongside the main three. Give all four in one unit system, with the tolerances that matter marked as tolerances rather than left inside a general note. If the bearing replaces an existing part, the old part's code or measured dimensions belong next to the new set: conversions are checked against them, and a conversion discovered late is a redesign, not a correction.
| Checklist group | The points it settles |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | Bore, outside diameter, width, flange where present |
| Material | Ring and element materials, against the duty |
| Sealing | Open, shielded, sealed or the custom arrangement |
| Duty | Load, speed, precision, noise, service life |
| Identity | Engraving and packaging requirements |
Material: named against the duty
A material line should read as an answer to the environment, because that is how it will be checked. The range's material set runs chrome steel AISI 52100, stainless SS420, SS440, SS304 and SS316L, ceramics ZrO2 and Si3N4, titanium, and the plastics POM, PA66, PTFE, PEEK, PE and PI — and the drawing should name its choice from that set or state the duty and let the choice be proposed. What does not work is a material carried over silently from a previous part whose duty differed: the drawing's environment note — wet, hot, chemical, clean, in a line each — is what validates the material, and it takes a sentence.
Sealing and housing style
State the sealing as a decision: open, ZZ shielded, 2RS sealed, or the custom arrangement the design needs, and the housing style where the item is housed. The closure trade is worked in full in the seals guide; the point here is narrower — a drawing that shows a seal in its section but never names it in its notes will be read both ways by different readers. Grease belongs in the same note: a sealed custom bearing carries its grease decision with it, and a special grease is a drawing note, not a message afterthought.
The duty points: load, speed, precision, noise, life
The custom frame names five performance points a custom order tailors: load, speed, precision, noise and service life. A drawing rarely needs all five quantified, but it should say which of them are driving the design — a quiet bearing and a long-life bearing are different optimisations wearing the same envelope. One line each is enough: the load case in words, the speed range in words, the precision grade where one is fixed, and any noise or life requirement stated as a requirement rather than as a hope. Silence on all five reads as none of them matter, and the part will be optimised for price.
Engraving, packaging and the buyer's identity
OEM logo engraving and private-label packaging belong to the custom order itself: they are part of the part's definition, not a finishing errand. The drawing set should state what is engraved, where it sits, and how the parts are packed — bulk, boxed, labelled — with artwork referenced by name. Requirements that arrive after pricing re-open the price; requirements that arrive attached to the drawing are simply priced. Keep them attached to the items they cover when a list mixes own-label and plain supply.
Samples and references
Where a sample exists, the drawing and the sample check each other, and the inquiry should say which governs where they differ — they always differ somewhere, if only in wear. Photographs of the installed position settle questions that neither document does, particularly for mounted and wheel conversions. Reference the sample and the photographs in the message by name, so the record of what was sent survives the conversation that sent it.
The second drawing: packaging and marking
A custom bearing arrives as a physical object that someone has to identify, store and fit, and the drawing rarely says anything about that life after manufacture. The points worth adding cost nothing at the drawing stage: how the bearing is marked — a logo engraved, a code etched, or deliberately unmarked — and how it is packed, individually boxed for spares stock or bulk-packed for an assembly line. Private-label packaging belongs on the same note: the label design is the buyer's, supplied as artwork, and it must arrive with the drawing rather than after the run, because printing waits for no bearing.
Marking deserves one specific warning. A bearing engraved with the wrong code is worse than an unmarked one, because the mark is believed. If the item is a conversion of a standard size, decide in writing whether the mark shows the custom reference or the standard code it converts from, and keep that decision with the drawing revision, so a later reorder does not silently flip it.
Revisions: version the drawing like the part
A custom drawing changes as the machine around it changes, and a revision sent without a version mark creates two live definitions of the same part. Mark each revision on the drawing itself, name the file with its revision, and state in the message which revision the quantities attach to. Reorders should name the revision they repeat; a workshop holding two revisions will build the one the message names, and a message that names none invites the older one. The habit costs a line per order and removes the most expensive misunderstanding in custom work.
Before you send: the one-pass read
Read the drawing set once as its reader: envelope complete, material answered against the environment, sealing named, the driving duty points stated, identity requirements attached, references named. Six checks, a few minutes, and the set prices in one pass. Then send it through the contact form with the quantities per item and the destination market in the same message — a drawing without quantities is a design review, and a drawing with them is an order being priced.
Send an inquiry
Run the checklist over your drawing set, attach quantities and the destination market, and send the set through the inquiry form for a one-pass price.