SoylentNews

Greaseless Ball Bearings Developed

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

CoolHand writes:

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]

• Re:10%? (Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Wednesday May 27 2015, @08:09AM

  by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Wednesday May 27 2015, @08:09AM (#188513) Homepage

  Click on the rollerblade video on their webpage - they give a concrete measured/calculated figure of 55% (total) friction compared to the leading brand of bearing. Of course they don't give figures for what proportion of the friction comes from what contacts. Presumably they do not reduce the rolling friction of an individual ball, if anything, they probably increase it marginally, which implies that the ball-ball contact friction reduction must be more significant than the total 45% reduction measured.

  --
  Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Interesting=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Interesting' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3