The bearing cage has a significant impact on the performance and service life of rolling bearings, and the selection of its material is particularly important. The material of the cage should have high mechanical strength, good wear resistance, resistance to impact loads, and good dimensional stability.

Bearing cages are generally divided into two types: stamped cages and solid cages.

Stamped cages for small and medium-sized bearings are generally made of high-quality carbon structural steel strips or steel plates, such as 08 or 10 steel. According to different uses, brass and stainless steel plates are also used.

Large bearings and bearings with small production batches generally use mechanical solid cages, which are made of materials such as brass, bronze, aluminum alloy, and structural carbon steel.

The cage of precision angular contact ball bearings is usually made of phenolic laminated fabric tubes.

In recent years, China has developed engineering plastic cages, which are typically made of glass fiber reinforced polyamide 66 (GRPA66-25) and operate at temperatures ranging from -30 to+120 ℃. This material is light in weight, low in density, resistant to friction, corrosion, good in elasticity, and good in sliding. It is easy to directly inject and has low manufacturing costs. It has been used to manufacture retainers for various bearings.