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posted by janrinok on Wednesday May 27 2015, @03:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the slip-slidin'-away dept.

Gizmag tells us about how a Japanese company, Coo Space, has developed an innovation in ball bearings that will allow the balls to automagically space themselves out. That will lead to vastly reduced friction which, in turn, will lead to the elimination of the necessity to grease the bearing to reduce the friction. This is potentially a huge development across all forms of industry.

The Autonomous Decentralised Bearing (ADB) puts a small indentation, or groove, into the outer bearing race. As the balls slide over this tiny groove, they slow down ever so slightly, and then speed back up. This does nothing to affect the bearing's regular performance, but if two balls are touching each other as they cross over the groove, the first ball's deceleration puts a tiny brake on the second ball, which separates the two as they go around the races.

It's an incredibly simple and tiny change, but it does a remarkable job.
...
Without the need for a cage, you can run these bearings un-lubricated, and that's where the real performance benefits come in. Coo Space claims the ADB experiences as little as 10 percent of the friction of a regular ball bearing

Here is a YouTube video of the bearings spacing themselves out within the races.


[Editor's Comment: Original Submission]

 
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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Common Joe on Wednesday May 27 2015, @04:41AM

    by Common Joe (33) <{common.joe.0101} {at} {gmail.com}> on Wednesday May 27 2015, @04:41AM (#188464) Journal

    I wondered about the long term wear and tear as well.

    I also wonder about that one ball that takes no load. Laid flat, it shouldn't be a problem, but when turned vertically, I'm not sure what the implications are. If that groove winds up at the bottom, what specifically is taking the weight? Will that cause faster wear and tear? I can imagine that would even impact something as small and lightweight as hard drives -- horizontal, no problem; vertical, shorter life.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by physicsmajor on Wednesday May 27 2015, @05:19AM

    by physicsmajor (1471) on Wednesday May 27 2015, @05:19AM (#188472)

    I can't help but notice this video was published in September of 2012.

    It seems to make sense, but where has this been in the last 2.5 years? Seems like something all sorts of industries would have tried by now.

    • (Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @05:29AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 27 2015, @05:29AM (#188474)

      It hadn't appeared on SoylentNews yet so absolutely nobody had heard of it.

  • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Wednesday May 27 2015, @07:41PM

    by Reziac (2489) on Wednesday May 27 2015, @07:41PM (#188747) Homepage

    I wondered about that... IANAE, but seems to me that vertical, there's probably more stress from bearings being pushed uphill, so to speak.

    --
    And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
  • (Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Wednesday May 27 2015, @09:48PM

    by Fluffeh (954) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday May 27 2015, @09:48PM (#188793) Journal

    From what I saw on the video, all the balls still take the weight all the time. The "leaf shaped" groove that they have doesn't appear to actually "lower" the ball - but rather, the groove is cut so that the point of contact between the surface of the ball and the outside track changes. Rather than rolling along an single outside surface (the longest path around the ball) it creates two points of contact higher up, closer to the centre of the ball. This means that the ball would have to spin faster to move at the same speed. In doing so, there is an introduction of friction as the inner track has no changes its point of contact with the ball. This slows the ball down ever so slightly, meaning that if it was rubbing against the ball in front of it, it no longer is.