The oil groove of the bearing is mainly used with grease lubrication to replace the lip seal ring, especially in the environment where a lot of dust is encountered. This sealing method generally has several oil grooves on the inner diameter and outer diameter. These oil grooves will be filled with the mixture of dust and grease, which is easy to harden and tightly seal the oil grooves. When oil is used for lubrication, the oil grooves will interfere with the capillary action to prevent the lubricating oil from overflowing the bearing cavity. These oil grooves may also be helical to drain the lubricating oil back into the bearing cavity, but only when the axis is horizontal and rotates in the same direction.
When the machine operates in an extremely dirty environment, the oil groove plus labyrinth seal will protect the grease lubricated bearing more effectively.
This type of seal is most effective when a small gap and a maximum number of oil grooves can be used.