Rings and rolling elements are usually made of high carbon chromium bearing steel. Most bearings use CCr15, and CCr15SiMn with good hardenability is used for bearing rings with larger cross-sections and rolling elements with larger diameters. High-carbon chromium bearing steel is an overall hardened steel, and its surface and core can be hardened, so it is the best material for rolling bearings.

Due to different use occasions, some bearings require materials to have special properties, such as impact resistance, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance and so on.

Carburized bearing steel is usually used for the rings and rolling elements of bearings that are subjected to impact loads or large and extra-large bearings during work. Carburizing bearing steel is carburized within the appropriate depth range of the surface layer of chromium-molybdenum steel, chromium-nickel-molybdenum steel or chromium-manganese-molybdenum steel, so that it has a dense structure and forms a hardened layer, while the hardness of the central part is low and has Good core impact toughness, due to the good performance of carburized bearing steel, its life calculation is the same as that of high carbon chromium bearing steel.

Bearings that work at high temperatures are made of high-temperature bearing steel with good heat resistance, and bearings that are exposed to corrosive media during work are made of stainless steel.

It is worth noting that the cleanliness of the bearing steel, the higher the cleanliness, the less non-metallic inclusions, the lower the oxygen content, the longer the bearing fatigue life, vacuum degassing or vacuum remelting steel can meet this requirement. Bearings requiring high reliability should be made of electroslag remelted steel.