SKF has presented a new generation of double direction angular contact thrust ball bearings for screw drives. These high-precision bearings serve as support bearings for ball screws, which are commonly used to drive the various axes in machine tools. This application requires a particularly reliable radial and axial guidance, which can be achieved with the bearings of the BEAS series (for shaft diameters of 8 to 30 millimetres) and BEAM series (for bolt mounting and shaft diameters of 12 to 60 millimetres).

SKF has now optimized the ready-to-mount bearings for significantly higher speeds and noticeably increased dynamic load ratings. To this end, SKF engineers have modified the internal geometry of the bearings to increase the dynamic load ratings of the latest BEAS series by as much as 17 percent, compared with their predecessors. The BEAM series reach as much as 20 percent higher load ratings. These higher load ratings ultimately improve the bearing service life and availability of the machine.