Imperial Cam Followers
We've spent years supplying cam follower solutions across industries that push bearings to their limits. Our experience covers everything from high-speed engines to contaminated agricultural environments.
Our cam followers work in:
- Engine valve trains operating at high speeds where precision matters
- CNC machines with 4th and 5th axis rotary tables and precision lathes
- Robotics applications including pick-and-place systems and articulated arms
- Can making machinery running continuous production under eccentric loads
- Textile machines with high-speed spinning and weaving operations
- Agricultural equipment working in dirty conditions with dust and moisture contamination
Applications Across Industries
Our cam followers handle radial, axial, eccentric, and shock loads whilst working in harsh environments—dust, moisture, temperature extremes, and corrosive atmospheres.
- Printing Machines – Registration systems and feed mechanisms where accuracy counts
- Heavy Industrial Mining – Conveyors, crushers, and processing kit handling extreme loads
- Oil and Gas – Drilling rigs, pumps, and subsea gear in corrosive conditions
- Nuclear – Critical systems needing full traceability and low-cobalt materials
Common Bearing Failures We've Sorted Out
Premature Failure Due to Eccentric Loads: Misalignment and eccentric loading account for many cam follower failures. We've fixed these problems by specifying crowned roller cam followers that handle angular misalignment, spreading loads evenly and stopping the edge loading that wears bearings quickly.
Speed-Related Failures: Running cam followers too fast cause centrifugal forces to make internal components skid instead of rolling properly. We've tackled this with crowned roller variants or hybrid ceramic bearings that run 20-30% faster than standard steel types.
Contamination and Seal Failure: Standard seals don't work well in dusty or wet conditions. We handle this by picking the right seals for specific contaminants and using fully sealed cam followers that keep out even tiny particles.
Installation-Induced Damage: We see plenty of bearings wrecked during fitting, wrong mounting methods or poor shaft and housing tolerances are usually to blame. Our technical support walks clients through the critical installation steps.
What We've Learnt From Real Installations
Shaft Surface Finish Matters More Than You Think: Textbooks give you tolerances, but we've learned from experience that surface finish is often more important. We've seen installations that looked perfect on paper fail because rough shafts created stress points. A better surface finish can add years to bearing life in tough applications.
Temperature Changes Everything: Bearings fitted perfectly at room temperature can become loose and rattling when they heat up in ovens or engine parts. We've had to learn the hard way about thermal expansion differences between shafts and bearings, often fitting tighter than the standard recommendations say.
"Clean" Environments Aren't Really Clean: Even in CNC workshops that look spotless, microscopic metal chips find their way into bearings. Rather than trying to make things perfectly clean (which is impossible), we've found it's better to add extra shields or use cam followers with proper sealing.
Multiple Bearings Never Share Loads Evenly: When you've got several cam followers sharing a load, the theory says they'll split it evenly. Reality is different, manufacturing tolerances and deflection mean one or two bearings usually carry more than their share. We size them knowing this will happen.
For metric applications, check out our metric cam follower range with the same experience backing it up.
Where Specialist Knowledge Makes the Difference
Nuclear Applications: Nuclear work demands complete traceability every component needs full material certification and manufacturing records. These jobs need low-cobalt materials (to avoid radioactive activation) and enhanced corrosion resistance for the harsh decontamination chemicals used.
Motorsport Applications: In F1 and endurance racing, every gram counts. To address this razor’s edge, we supply lightweight cam followers with hollow rollers. We also improve cage designs to reduce drag and weight.
Clean Room Environments: Pharmaceutical and semiconductor manufacturing must be contaminant free. This is a non-negotiable. We've specified stainless steel cam followers with solid lubricant coatings that will not leak oil. To boot, they can also handle aggressive cleaning chemicals and steam sterilization.
How We've Helped Customers
Cutting Lead Times: Manufacturers often face long waits from suppliers, forcing them to stockpile bearings. We keep common sizes in stock and deliver quickly, helping customers reduce inventory whilst avoiding production stoppages from stock-outs.
Making Bearings Last Longer: Equipment often has a short bearing life because someone specified standard products without really looking at the application. We've dug into operating conditions and found better solutions, crowned roller variants, for instance, that have doubled or tripled service life and cut warranty claims.
Our Expertise
Technical Qualifications We're ISO 9001:2015 and AS9120D:2016 certified. This showcases our commitment to quality management systems.
- High-Temperature Work – Ceramic and hybrid ceramic cam followers for kit running in extreme heat
- High-Speed Applications – Crowned roller variants and hybrid ceramics for pushing past normal speed limits
- Harsh Environments – Sealed cam followers and corrosion-resistant materials for mining, offshore, and agricultural kit
- Precision Jobs – Tight-tolerance cam followers for CNC tools and robotics where accuracy matters
Material Knowledge
We know our way around steel grades and heat treatment, stainless options for corrosive conditions, ceramic materials for extreme environments, coating technologies, and lubrication, everything from high-temperature synthetics through to food-grade options.