Industrial Bearings & Skate Wheels

Jealco sources from FAG, Frantz, INA, Koyo, Nachi, NSK, NTN, RBC, SKF, and Timken specifically so you're not tied to a single supplier. Each brand has its own strengths: FAG and SKF (Europe) and Timken (inventor of the tapered roller bearing) are known for broad heavy-industry ranges; Koyo, Nachi, NSK, and NTN (Japan) are known for precision, tight tolerances, and consistent quality; INA specializes in needle roller and linear motion components for space-constrained applications; RBC focuses on highly engineered plain bearings and specialty configurations for aerospace and defense; and Frantz is Jealco's 30-year conveyor bearing partner. Rather than picking a brand first, tell us your application and load, speed, and environment requirements, and our team will match you to the right brand and bearing type.

Start from the load, not the brand. Deep groove ball bearings handle radial load at high speed and are the usual default. Tapered roller bearings take heavy radial and axial load together and are mounted in opposing pairs. Spherical roller bearings take very heavy load and tolerate real misalignment, which is why they dominate crushers, screens and conveyor pulleys. Cylindrical roller bearings give high radial capacity and usually let the shaft float axially. Needle roller bearings give high capacity in the least radial space. Plain bearings and rod ends take shock and oscillating motion that would damage a rolling bearing. Send us the load, speed, shaft size and environment and we will specify the type before we quote a brand.

This shows up clearly in the Frantz lineup: GenStar® bearings are precision, built on machined ABEC-1 cores; GenII® bearings are semi-precision; and Flanged bearings are non-precision. Precision bearings hold tighter dimensional tolerances, which generally means smoother rotation, less vibration, and longer service life, but at a higher cost. Semi-precision bearings trade some of that tolerance for a lower price point, and non-precision bearings are the most economical option for applications where tight tolerances aren't critical. The right tier depends on your equipment's speed, load, and how critical smooth, long-term performance is to your operation.

Housed units and inserts — offered by FAG, NTN, SKF, Koyo, and Timken among others — combine a bearing with its mounting housing as a single pre-assembled component, rather than requiring you to source and machine a separate housing for a bare bearing. This simplifies installation and replacement, which is especially useful in conveyor and material handling equipment where downtime for a bearing swap needs to be minimized. If you're replacing a bearing in an existing housing, a bare bearing is usually the right match; if you're building new or replacing a worn housing along with the bearing, a housed unit is typically the simpler choice.

Yes. Those applications generally call for spherical roller bearings, heavy tapered roller bearings, or four-row tapered sets, usually sealed against contamination, and the lines that cover them best are SKF, FAG, NSK, NTN and Timken. Tell us the load, the shaft diameter and what the bearing is exposed to — heat, water, dust or shock — and we will specify from there rather than quoting a catalogue number blind.

Yes. Washdown duty usually means stainless races, food-grade grease, and seals rated for chemical exposure, or a solid-lubricant design where regreasing is impractical. Stainless skate wheels are available from Frantz for conveyor positions. Tell us the wash chemistry and temperature as well as the load, because the cleaning regime often decides the bearing more than the load does.

Yes, and it is one of the more common things we are asked to do. Most standard metric bearings share a dimensional numbering system across manufacturers, so a number from one brand usually identifies an equivalent in another. Send us the full number including any suffix — the suffix carries the cage, clearance and seal detail, and that is the part people most often leave off. Where a bearing is proprietary rather than standard, we identify the nearest functional equivalent and tell you where it differs.

Skate wheels are used in conveyor systems, transfer tables, and other material handling applications, typically in gravity or low-power accumulation conveying where individual wheels support and guide product along a track rather than a continuous belt or powered rollers. Jealco's primary skate wheel partner is Frantz Manufacturing, whose lineup covers the most common conveyor and industrial skate wheel needs, from light-duty to Tortoise Shell® heavy-duty wheels. Skate wheel conveyors are generally a lower-cost, lower-maintenance option than belt or roller conveyors for applications that don't need continuous surface support.

Frantz offers skate wheels in several materials and profiles: steel conveyor wheels for standard duty, Low Profile Conveyor Wheels where deck height is tight, Stainless Steel Skate Wheels for washdown or corrosive environments, Aluminum Skate Wheels where lighter weight matters, Plastic (acetal) Skate Wheels as an economical, lightweight, non-marring option (the 65WW WHISPER wheel is the low-noise choice), and Tortoise Shell® Heavy Duty Wheels for the most demanding loads. Light & Medium Duty Skate Wheels and Idler & Guide Wheels round out the lineup for lower-load and guide-track applications. If your specific requirement isn't a clean fit — a different brand, size, or load rating — Jealco can source it as an independent distributor; contact us with your specifications.

No. Everything on this page is industrial — bearings for machinery, conveyors, gearboxes and process equipment, and skate wheels for conveyor and material handling systems. We do not supply automotive hub or wheel bearings for cars and light trucks, and a parts store or automotive supplier is the right place for those.

Yes. Export has been Jealco's core business since 1950 and we ship worldwide. Metric and inch series are both available, and we handle the export documentation.