Cross Reference Help

A cross reference maps one maker's part number onto another's. For a mounted bearing the number states the housing style, the locking method, the duty and the bore, and only the bore carries across exactly; for a cam follower it is the roller diameter and the stud or yoke construction; for a coupling it is the size and the bore capacity. This guide shows how the Browning, Sealmaster and McGill number systems line up, which Browning units substitute to a Sealmaster part, which coupling lines interchange with other makers, and what has to be confirmed before an equivalent is ordered. How a single mounted bearing number decodes is covered in the Mounted Bearing Nomenclature guide; bore sizes convert in the Shaft Size Conversion Chart.

How do I read a mounted bearing number from another brand?

Browning and Sealmaster mounted ball bearing numbers carry the same four facts: housing style, locking method, duty and bore. Both state an inch bore in sixteenths, so a 16 is a 1 inch bore and a 20 is 1 1/4 inch in either system, and both mark the reduced 1 1/4 inch and 2 inch bores with a letter: S in a Browning number, R in a Sealmaster number. The housing and locking codes differ, and the table below sets them side by side.

Browning VPS-216 reads VP (pillow block, high base, cast iron), S (setscrew lock), 2 (standard duty, 200 series), 16 (1 inch bore). Sealmaster NP-16 reads NP (pillow block, high base, standard duty) and 16 (1 inch bore), with setscrew locking as the standard. The two are the same housing style, lock and bore in two notations, and the feed lists NP-16 as the substitute for VPS-216. Sealmaster ER-43 is an ER cylindrical O.D. insert with a 43/16, or 2 11/16 inch, bore; the Browning number for the same insert is VER-243, with the 2 stating standard duty.

Not every housing style is made in every duty, bore or locking option. Browse the current range by housing type under pillow blocks, flange units, take-ups and insert bearings.

Which Browning mounted bearings have a Sealmaster substitute?

These Browning large-bore numbers are legacy parts the manufacturer has phased out, and the substitutes below are its own reference for replacing one. A substitute carries the bore across unchanged and states the duty in the Sealmaster housing code, but the housing style can change with it: VPS-247 is a high base pillow block and its primary substitute NPL-47 is a low base one, so the mounting has to be checked against the substitute's own dimensions before it is ordered. The primary substitute is the felt-seal unit and the alternate is the contact-seal unit carrying a C suffix, while the Browning unit itself uses a single lip contact seal and flinger. Eccentric-lock (E) Browning units have no direct substitute, or substitute only to a setscrew-lock part, and the VS insert series has no substitute at all. In some cases the locking design changes with the substitute, and each substitute should be reviewed against its product data sheet, installation instructions and relubrication guidelines before it is installed.

The same pattern runs through the whole large-bore range: VER to ER, VPS to NPL or MP, VPLS to NPL, VF4S to SF or MSF, VFCS to SFC or MFC, VTWS to MST, with the bore code carried across unchanged.

Browning SPB1000 spherical roller units to Sealmaster USRB

A Browning SPB1000 number states the shaft size as a fraction after the series; the Sealmaster USRB number states it as three digits, the first for whole inches and the next two for sixteenths, so 2 7/16 becomes 207. The housing letters map SPB to USRB, SFB to USFB, SFC to USFC, SBF to USBF and STU to USTU; an E in the Browning number carries across as E, the 1100 series becomes USRBE, and the C variants take a -C suffix. Sealmaster Sleevloc units substitute the same way to USRB AE parts (ESPB2207-C2 to USRB5000AE-207-C, with USRB5000AE-207 as the alternate). The current USRB range is under mounted spherical roller bearings.

How do I cross-reference a McGill cam follower number?

A McGill CAMROL number is read from the middle outward: the basic type (CF cam follower, CYR cam yoke roller, CFH heavy stud), then the size, which is the roller O.D. in inches for the inch series and in millimeters for a metric stud type, then the prefixes and suffixes that state the roller profile, sealing, hex hole, eccentric bushing and material. To match another maker's cam follower, take its roller diameter, stud or yoke construction, crowned or cylindrical profile and sealing, and build the CAMROL number from those elements. The inch and metric series state the profile differently: the inch CF 1 1/2 SB has a cylindrical O.D. and takes a C prefix for a crowned roller (CCF 1 1/2 SB), while the metric MCF 35 SB has a crowned O.D. and takes an X suffix for a cylindrical one.

Inch example: C CF E - 1 1/2 - SB is a crowned, eccentric-bushing cam follower with a 1 1/2 inch roller, sealed, with a hex hole.

Metric example: MCF R - 35 - B is a metric cam follower with retained rolling elements, a 35 mm roller and a hex hole. The full range is under cam followers.

How do coupling sizes cross-reference between brands?

Three coupling families interchange with other makers by design: gear couplings interchange by half coupling with Falk, Ameridrives and TB Wood's designs; Kop-Grid tapered grid couplings interchange with other tapered grid couplings component by component, hubs, grids, seals and cover assembly, with Falk and Dodge sizes carrying the same number and Lovejoy sizes numbered 2020 through 2140; and Browning jaw couplings interchange with Lovejoy. Fast's Model B gear couplings are not interchangeable with standard Fast's couplings. For any other line the cross reference is made on the selection figures: the selected coupling must have a torque rating at or above the selection torque (service factor times application torque), a bore capacity at or above the shaft size, and a maximum speed at or above the application speed.

Where a competitor number gives only a size, the line it belongs to is narrowed by bore range. The ranges below are each line's published span, so a 3 inch shaft rules out a Browning sleeve coupling (2 11/16 inch maximum) and a 1/2 inch shaft rules out a Max-C (3 1/8 inch minimum). The 252 Morflex standard coupling is the smallest Morflex size. Current stock is under gear couplings, jaw couplings, elastomeric couplings and disc couplings.

What carries over exactly, and what has to be checked?

The bore carries over exactly when both numbers are read in the same units, and on the metric UC-series mounted ball bearings the mounting dimensions do too: bore diameter, shaft center height and fixing-hole diameter and spacing are fully interchangeable dimensions on that line. Everything else in the number has to be checked field by field: the shaft locking type, the seal, the internal clearance, the lubrication, and whether the unit is fixed or expansion, with the housing dimensions compared on the product page rather than assumed from the bore. Two units that share a bore and a housing can still differ on seal and temperature rating, and a Browning eccentric-lock unit substitutes to a Sealmaster concentric collar, which is a different locking method on the same shaft.

• Bore. Same nominal size in the same units; a 1 inch bore is not a 25 mm bore.
• Shaft locking. Set screw, eccentric, concentric collar or double setscrew, as the number states it.
• Seal. Felt, single lip contact, contact with flinger or labyrinth; the seal is the usual difference between a primary and an alternate substitute.
• Clearance. UC-series inserts are supplied in the CN radial clearance class, with C3, C4 and C5 optional; the Sealmaster and Browning inch units above list their radial clearance as Standard.
• Lubrication. Whether the unit can be relubricated, and the factory grease.
• Fixed or expansion. A Sealmaster expansion unit carries an E prefix; an E in the locking position of a Browning number is the eccentric lock, not expansion.

Worked comparison: two Browning units and their listed substitutes

The feed lists Sealmaster NP-16 as the substitute for Browning VPS-216 and Sealmaster SFT-16TC for Browning VF2E-216. Set side by side, the bore, housing, duty, bolt size and clearance match; the seal and the upper temperature limit differ on both pairs, and the locking method changes on the flange pair.

Can a 4L or 5L belt be replaced with an A or B belt?

The fractional-horsepower sections cross to the classical sections size for size: every 4L belt has an A and an AX number against it, and every 5L belt has a B and a BX number. A is the wrapped classical Super Gripbelt and AX is the notched Gripnotch form of the same section; B and BX are that pair one section up. The substitution runs one way only. A 4L or 5L belt may be replaced with the A, AX, B or BX belt listed against it — 4L230 may be replaced with A21 or AX21, and 5L310 may be replaced with B28 or BX28 — but an A, AX, B or BX belt may not be replaced with a 4L or 5L belt. What each section measures and how a belt number states its length are in the FHP V-Belt Sizes guide; current stock is under belts.

The cross reference runs from 4L230 to 4L1000 and from 5L310 to 5L1000, so the longest classical belts have no fractional-horsepower equivalent at all: A99 and A100 sit past the end of the 4L range, and B98, B99 and B100 past the end of the 5L range.

How do I find the equivalent stock sheave?

The stock sheave listing is ordered by diameter and groove count rather than by part number, which is what makes it a cross reference: find the diameter and the number of grooves, then read across the row for the number in the construction you want. Each row states the datum diameter that position works out to on an A belt and on a B belt, then the number at that diameter as a cast iron finished-bore sheave, as a bushed sheave, as a Split Taper sheave and as a Q-D sheave. The single groove row that is 5.0 in datum on an A belt and 5.4 in on a B belt reads as below, and AK54H, BK60H, 1TB54 and 1B5V54 are four of the constructions that row lists.

Two compatibility rules govern the swap, and neither is visible in the part number: an A belt will run in a B sheave, but a B belt will not run in an A sheave; and TB and B sheaves cannot be used with 5V belts. Current stock is under V-belt sheaves and FHP sheaves, with the diameters and groove counts set out in the V-Belt Sheave Sizes guide.

What does the letter on the end of a sheave number mean?

A sheave number ends either in a finished bore or in a bushing letter, and that ending is the part of the number that decides how the sheave mounts. AK 89 H is a single groove cast iron sheave for an A section belt, at nominal diameter reference 89, bored for an H bushing; A K 64 x 1 is the same family at pitch diameter 64 with a 1 in finished bore; and 8 C 70 Q is an eight groove C section sheave at 7.0 diameter for a Q bushing.

The letter names the bushing, and the bushing sets the bore, so a bushed sheave is ordered together with its bushing in the shaft size wanted: an AK54H takes an H bushing, and an H bushing covers 3/8 in to 1 1/2 in, so H 1 1/2 is the top of that range. On B5V and TB sheaves the bushing is not part of the number and the listing states it separately, which is why a B5V or TB number alone does not tell you what bore it will take. The two bushing lines are Split Taper, in standard bores from 3/8 in to 7 7/16 in and metric bores from 10 mm to 95 mm, and Q-D, in standard bores from 1/2 in to 7 in and metric bores from 24 mm to 100 mm. Q-D bushings are fully interchangeable with competitive Q-D bushings, so a Q-D bushed sheave takes the same lettered bushing whoever made it. The taper on every Browning split bushing is 3/4 in per foot on diameter.

Browse bushings by line — Split Taper bushings and Q-D bushings — or read the full bore and dimension tables in the Split Taper Bushing Sizes guide and the Q-D Bushing Sizes guide.

How do I request a cross reference?

Send the number exactly as it is marked on the part or the print, the maker if it is known, and the shaft size, through the cross reference support form, and we will confirm the equivalent before you order. For a bearing, add the housing style, the locking method and the seal if they can be read from the unit; for a coupling, add the horsepower and speed, the type of prime mover and driven equipment, the distance between shaft ends, both shaft sizes and any special requirement such as high start-up torque, limited end float or high temperature. A worn marking, a partial number or a mixed-brand assembly is a normal request. Ready to compare? Browse mounted bearings, mounted ball bearings and couplings by type and filter by bore.