Here are two barbarous acronyms which sometimes conceal very different realities. Even If the ABEC standard is the most common on the market and is often favored by vendors, yet it is not systematically a token of quality
By Alfathor
The ABEC standard
The abbreviation ABEC stands for Annular Bearing Engineers Council. This is an American categorization for quality tolerance. This standard is responsible for the precision of the ball sphere in the bearing. In the production of bearings, the balls are selected depending on their accuracy and on this basis the ABEC class is determined.
For example, a bearing with a class ABEC 1 will have more clearance than an ABEC 3 or ABEC 5, and will therefore be less precise. In other words, the balls of an ABEC 1 bearing will be "less" round than those of ABEC 3 and above.
The limitations of the ABEC standard
The ABEC standard does not specify the quality of the materials used to make the bearing. The manufacturer can use different materials without committing to providing information about them and at the same time mark the bearing as ABEC 7. The reference alloy is 1OOCr6 carbon steel, which remains a criterion for quality, as it is controlled only during manufacturing.
For a long time, the ABEC standard has been imposed by the strategic choice of Asian manufacturers, while not respecting ISO standards.
The ISO standard offers much higher quality in the materials used and the production process.
What is an ISO standard?
This certificate is given to manufacturing companies by an organization that monitors the production process and the products used. The organization is managed by a network of 146 national institutes. The purpose of this organization is to monitor and guarantee the quality of each product.
The relationship between standards
ABEC and ISO:
- ABEC 1 = ISO 0
- ABEC 3 = ISO 6
- ABEC 5 = ISO 5
- ABEC 7 = ISO 4
- ABEC 9 = ISO 2
Recently, manufacturers are not limited to indexing bearings with only one of the two standards. For the convenience of the customer, both standards are listed. In this way, they offer a product that guarantees quality according to both standards. One of the companies that promotes quality and standards is Twincam with its ILQ class of bearings.
What is ILQ?
Twincam is perhaps one of the most well-known manufacturers in the skating community. Founded in 1986, the company began producing bearings for skates in 1990. In 2012, Twincam launched the commercial brand "ILQ". This is not a standard, but an internal company name for the product. The principle of "6 ball bearing" - a better ride.
In conclusion
The ABEC standard is not a quality standard. It is an index of the spherical quality of the balls, from low to high: ABEC: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9… without taking into account the manufacturing process and the materials used. A bearing indexed with an ISO standard guarantees a minimum of manufacturing quality. As for ILQ, it is primarily a manufacturing brand, more of a marketing concept than a quality certificate.
Materials used: Skate bearings: ABEC and ISO standards