RHPXLT6EImperial Grooved-Race Thrust Ball Bearing 6 x 7-5/8 x 1-1/4 in, Three-Piece Separable, Single Direction, Machined Brass Cage Variants

Product Description

What this part is

This is an imperial (inch) grooved-race thrust ball bearing from the RHP XLT series, sized 6.000 in bore × 7.625 in outside diameter × 1.250 in overall height — 6 × 7-5/8 × 1-1/4 in. It is a three-piece separable assembly: two grooved thrust washers, which form the raceways, plus a single ball-and-cage assembly that sits between them. All three pieces come apart in the hand and are not retained to one another.

It is not an angular contact bearing and it is not a combined-load bearing. The XLT series belongs to the British imperial thrust ball family historically covered by BS 3134, carried under the RHP designation XLT, also written XLT-6.

Pure axial load and no radial capacity

This is the single most important thing to understand before buying. A grooved-race thrust ball bearing carries axial (thrust) load in one direction and has essentially no radial load capacity at all. It cannot locate a shaft radially — the balls run in shallow grooves in flat washers, and there is no geometry there to resist a side load.

In practice that means the bearing must always be paired with a separate radial bearing that does the locating work. If radial load finds its way into a thrust ball bearing — through a misaligned housing, a belt pull, a cocked seating face or an overhung load — it will skid the balls, brinell the washers and fail the bearing quickly. Designers use these where the thrust duty is real and the radial duty is handled elsewhere: vertical spindles, screw jacks, capstans, turntables, rotary tables and gearbox thrust faces.

Decoding the designation

XLT — RHP imperial thrust ball bearing series, grooved race, single direction.
6 — the series size number, here giving a 6.000 in bore.
E — RHP design-modification suffix indicating the enhanced, current-generation internal design applied to the standard type.
M — machined brass/bronze cage. RHP and NSK both use M for a machined brass cage.
MS — machined brass cage, single direction (M plus S). This is the variant usually listed as the direct equivalent of the US-style XW6M number.
No suffix (plain XLT6) — the base version, supplied with a pressed-steel cage.

What the cage material buys you

Cage choice matters more in a thrust bearing than in most radial bearings, because the balls in a flat grooved-race thrust bearing do a good deal of sliding against the cage rather than pure rolling. A machined brass cage tolerates higher speeds, higher operating temperatures and marginal lubrication better than a pressed-steel cage, and it is far more forgiving of that cage-guided sliding. A pressed-steel cage is perfectly adequate for slow, well-lubricated, lightly cycled thrust duty and costs less. If the application runs warm, runs fast for a thrust bearing, or has a lubrication regime you do not fully trust, the machined brass variants are the ones to look for.

Published ratings and the honest gap

Ball count, ball diameter, basic dynamic and static load ratings, and limiting speed are not published for the XLT series by NSK/RHP or by any distributor we can verify. Distributor listings for this part publish dimensions only. Rather than borrow figures from a similar-looking bearing and present them as fact, we are stating the gap plainly: those numbers are not available. If your application is load-critical, size it from the original machine documentation or contact NSK Europe directly for the series data.

The dimensional data below is what is genuinely published:

Bore: 6.000 in
Outside diameter: 7.625 in (7-5/8 in)
Overall height / width: 1.250 in (1-1/4 in)
Direction: single
Construction: three-piece separable, two grooved washers plus one ball-and-cage assembly

Quantity and configuration

Six units are in stock. That is worth thinking about, because thrust washers wear as a set — you do not mix a worn washer with a new one and expect an even load distribution across the ball complement. Six on hand means a buyer can refit every thrust location on a machine from one batch and hold spares against the next outage, which is normally the only sane way to buy an obsolete imperial thrust bearing.

Because this is a separable three-piece bearing, confirm you are receiving complete assemblies rather than loose washers. Separable thrust bearings get split up in a stores environment more often than anyone likes to admit.

Fitting notes

The two washers are usually not identical. A grooved-race thrust bearing typically has a shaft washer and a housing washer with different bore or outside diameter tolerances, and they must go back the right way round.
Seating faces must be square to the shaft axis. If the faces are not parallel, the bearing loads a few balls heavily and the rest not at all, and the life calculation goes out of the window.
Keep the bearing under a minimum axial preload in service. A thrust ball bearing that is allowed to unload will let the balls skid rather than roll, which smears the raceway grooves.
Single direction means the thrust must always act one way. If the load reverses, you need a second bearing opposing the first, or a double-direction design.

Interchange guidance

RHP is Ransome Hoffmann Pollard of the UK, now part of NSK Europe and branded NSK-RHP. Anyone chasing current production should search under NSK. Cross-references and alternate spellings seen in the field: XLT6, XLT6E, XLT6M, XLT6MS, XLT-6, XW6, XW 6 M, and generic or QBL-branded XLT6. The XW numbering is the US-style equivalent for the same envelope. Always confirm the 6 × 7-5/8 × 1-1/4 in envelope and the single-direction, three-piece construction against your existing part before ordering, since imperial thrust series are easy to confuse across brands.