Talk:Ball (bearing)

A fact from Ball (bearing) appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 10 July 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that in 2008, the United States produced 5,778 million bearing balls?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/July.

Wikipedia

Ball bearings

It took me several minutes to realize why this article doesn't duplicate the ball bearing article. So I suggest changing the introduction, "Bearing balls are special highly spherical and smooth balls. As the name suggests they are often used in bearings." to "Bearing balls are the special highly spherical and smooth balls used in ball bearings." Art LaPella (talk) 00:25, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the input. I've modified it accordingly. Wizard191 (talk) 19:16, 5 July 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Materials Table

I am not a ME or material scientist & came here to learn about tungsten carbide balls, but I found the material table confusing and not infomrative. The table list the material using technical codes such as M50, but lacks links to that material nor does the table provide a common generic description of the material, e.g., stainless steel, plastic, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mountainlogic (talk • contribs) 21:41, 9 September 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Shrapnel

I was wondering if this was suitable for inclusion, bearing balls (although I usually say it the other way round for the same object) are often included in bombs homemade or otherwise (see claymore mine) to act as shrapnel --High Tinkerer (talk) 12:10, 6 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If you can find a reliable source then feel free to add it. Wizard191 (talk) 14:23, 6 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

But do not feel free to "say it the other way round for the same object", because that's just plain wrong. A ball bearing is not a bearing ball! --BjKa (talk) 13:15, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Other uses for balls?

Should this article also mention pinball, pachinko and ammo for BB guns as other applications for these bearing balls? --95.148.105.251 (talk) 22:55, 1 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Do these other applications call the balls "bearing balls"? Wizard191 (talk) 00:38, 2 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, they probably call them "ball bearings" because they usually don't know any better, but that matter aside: Bearing balls are usually the cheapest source for high precision steel balls, so they are usually used in all these applications. So, yes, I think a side note to that effect would be valid. --BjKa (talk) 13:10, 12 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]

American bias

The article only covers bearing balls defined by American Bearing Manufacturers Association and seems to make no mention of their global use or specification. 82.38.204.141 (talk) 20:12, 11 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Two root causes, neither of which is bias per se so much as just lack of comprehensiveness to date:

As for content contributions covering non-U.S. standards (such as ISO, DIN, JIS, etc)—which could equally well be contributed here by either Americans or non-Americans—no one's standing in the way of anyone contributing it anytime anyone has the time or motivation. It simply hasn't happened yet. Thus not bias in the sense of prejudice—just in the sense of lack of comprehensiveness, to date.
The other thing is that certain technical specialties, in today's globalized manufacturing era, follow standards that started as national standards, but today use them as de facto international standards. Thus you may have aircraft parts built in Europe to SAE standards—not because SAE is any longer exclusively American (which it once was but no longer is), but simply because many SAE standards are long since internationally adhered to. Same with many DIN standards. Roller bearings are not my specialty, but I would not be surprised if they are sold as certed to various standards; thus one package might be labeled as conforming to, say, ABMA 123, ISO 99456, DIN 12345, and JIS 56789. I know for sure that raw materials are sold that way.

In summary, "bias" is kind of the wrong word for it, when it comes to industrial technology coverage on Wikipedia. "Lack of comprehensiveness because no knowledgeable volunteers have stepped in to complete it yet" is the actual situation.

— ¾-10 21:42, 11 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

The volunteers who contributed to this article appear to be well versed in American-standard bearing balls. So, rather than …no knowledgeable volunteers have stepped in… the situation would be more accurately be described as “no volunteer with knowledge of worldwide standards have so far been willing to step in and add more about worldwide (ISO/metric) standards.” As a senior mechanical engineer in America who has specified bearing balls, doing so requires dealing with the varying practices observed today by American suppliers. Indeed, there is room for improvement in this article; there always room for improvement in all of Wikipedia’s articles. Greg L (talk) 20:16, 18 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]