Steering Encoder Units
A sealed ball bearing carrying a magnetised impulse ring and a reading head inside the same envelope, so the bearing that supports the steering column also reports its angle. The controller gets a direction-sensing signal without a separate encoder bracket to align. SES holds the range as an authorised SKF distributor, covering bearing type Single row deep groove ball, sealed; sensing Multipole magnetised ring read by an integrated head; supply Low-voltage DC from the vehicle controller; signal Two channels in quadrature for direction. Executions include steering encoder units with axial cable exit, steering encoder units with radial cable exit, units with integrated connector, units with extended lead for remote controllers. It is specified most often into steering columns on plant forklifts and reach trucks and rear-wheel steer axles on yard tractors and tow trains. Every part is genuine SKF through official channels, with designation, specification and options confirmed against your duty before it ships — supplied from Kolkata and our branch network, with breakdown cover that does not sit in an inbox.
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Function
Shaft support + steering angle feedback
Output
Digital pulse train, direction sensing
Sealing
Sealed both sides, not serviceable
Interface
Flying lead or connector pigtail
Where it runs.
You will find Steering Encoder Units in the parts of a plant where this particular duty actually occurs. In practice that means steering columns on plant forklifts and reach trucks, rear-wheel steer axles on yard tractors and tow trains, AGVs and pallet shuttles inside warehouse aisles, and equally telehandlers and rough-terrain handlers on stockyards, compact loaders used for slag and scrap movement, electric platform trucks in packing and dispatch bays. What links them is the duty rather than the machine name — function: Shaft support + steering angle feedback. If your installation is not on that list it matters less than you would think: the operating condition decides the specification. Send us the load, the speed, the running temperature and the environment it runs in, and we will match it to the right execution in the SKF range and confirm what is in stock.
Specify it against the duty.
Specification here follows the operating condition, not the catalogue. The vehicle controller expects a known pulse count per revolution — Match the resolution of the replacement unit to the original designation. A different pulse count reads as a steering ratio error and the truck will track off-line even though the mechanics are sound. Washdown or high-pressure jetting near the column — Confirm the sealing and cable-entry rating before fitting. Water tracking along the lead into the sensor head kills the signal long before the bearing itself wears out. Cable is routed through a moving steering linkage — Order the version with the correct lead length and clamp the loom so it flexes in a loop, not at the gland. Flexing at the entry point breaks strands one at a time and shows up as intermittent angle jumps. Where two of those apply at once, specify for the harsher of the two — under-specifying is what puts the part back on the bench a month later. Send us the duty and we will confirm the execution.
Ordering this from SES.
Do not clean the impulse ring face with a magnet-bearing tool or lay the unit on a steel bench near welding slag. Magnetic swarf sticking to the ring corrupts the pulse pattern permanently, and the fault looks exactly like a failed controller.