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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: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:58PM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Wednesday May 27 2015, @01:58PM (#188602) Journal

    Assuming this is a great idea, and doesn't suffer from other problems that we have yet to discover because these bearings have not been in use for years, I wonder how many applications could use this advance but won't thanks to patents. The patent holders will be too greedy, too hard to contact and negotiate with. That patent holders can just say no and refuse to deal at any price is one of the many flaws in the system. They might think to go into business themselves, and do a bad job of getting this advance into our hands, preferring to sell limited numbers at premium prices in part because they don't have the capacity.

    The 17 year wait might not be enough, they might have more features to patent at a later date to keep the advance effectively locked up.

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