Mixing of imperial taper cup and cones
Mixing of imperial taper cup and cones
(OP)
A debate currently rages in my office, and I need some help to resolve the issue.
I have always been told that mixing cups and cones from different manufacturers is not recommended practice. But, there is a group of my engineers who seem to have been told that old imperial tapers can be mixed, but not metric cups and cones.
Dimensionally imperial taper cups and cones will be the same, so at a superficial level there should be no problem, but surely there are small design differences that make this a bad practice? Or am I out of date???
Would appreciate any comment please. Thanks!
I have always been told that mixing cups and cones from different manufacturers is not recommended practice. But, there is a group of my engineers who seem to have been told that old imperial tapers can be mixed, but not metric cups and cones.
Dimensionally imperial taper cups and cones will be the same, so at a superficial level there should be no problem, but surely there are small design differences that make this a bad practice? Or am I out of date???
Would appreciate any comment please. Thanks!
Lester Milton
NBC Group Ltd, Telford, Shropshire, UK





RE: Mixing of imperial taper cup and cones
RE: Mixing of imperial taper cup and cones
It would not be that difficult to check
the taper angle of the cups from several
suppliers of the same part number. If
they are the same, then they are compatable.
Of course you would have no warrantee from
either company. I think it would be more
of a liability factor than a practical
factor. When I worked at Timken, companies
in China would reverse engineer our parts
and put them on the market. Obviously the
quality was not the same and got about one
third the life. I would be surprised if they
were not interchangeable.
RE: Mixing of imperial taper cup and cones
What you loose in doing so is fatigue life improvments from roller profiles and advanced metallurgy. If you are in an enviroment where contaimination or lack of lubrication is what causes the end of service life to be reached, then there is no problem with mixing these parts and this is probably the cheapest design solution. But if the enviroment is controlled and the bearings are failing due to fatigue, it would be very advantageous to go to matched components PROVIDED your supplier will give you fatigue life improvers such as modern roller profiles and metallurgy changes at the same time. IF the supplier just gives you matched parts with industry std profiles you're really just wasting your money.