Does internal clearance effect the bearing precision?
Internal clearance is the amount of internal free space between the rolling elements and the raceways of a bearing. The ranges of internal clearance are governed by ISO and the ABMA and are denoted by the NTN suffixes: C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5, where no suffix indicates normal clearance. C1 is a range less than C2. C2 is a range less than normal. C3 is a range greater than normal, C4 is a range greater than C3 and C5 is a range greater than C4. Precision is a range of tolerance on bearing dimensions. ISO and ABMA govern the precision ranges. ISO uses Class 0, Class 6, Class 5, Class 4, and Class 2 and ABMA uses ABEC 1, ABEC 3, ABEC 5, ABEC 7 and ABEC 9, respectively the systems are generally interchangeable. NTN uses P0 (usually not added to the part number), P6, P5, P4 and P2 to denote Class 0, Class 6, Class 5, Class 4 and Class 2, respectively. Ultimately, clearance does not affect tolerance and tolerance does not affect clearance.
