Saint-Gobain Introduces CERBEC® Ceramic Balls
Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramics has introduced its line of CERBEC® balls for bearings and ballscrew applications. Several of Saint-Gobain's customers applied CERBEC bearings and ballscrews in hybrid bearings (steel races and CERBEC balls) produced by SKF, Timken, NSK, SNFA, Cerobear, GMN, Torrington, and others. Representing the ballscrew market, Umbra incorporates Saint-Gobain's ceramic roller components in several of its machine tool ballscrews.
Hybrid bearings are used in a range of products including machine tool spindles, aerospace instrumentation, automobile wheels and gear boxes, electric motors, turbo molecular pumps, centrifugal pumps, vacuum pumps, robotics, and power tools.
According to Saint-Gobain Advanced Ceramics and its customers, products last longer and provide better performance using CERBEC for several reasons. CERBEC balls offer the combination of lower thermal expansion, higher hardness, higher stiffness, lighter weight, increased corrosion resistance, and higher electrical resistance that increases performance and decreases total operating costs for the bearing user. Generally, products using hybrid bearings offer decreased lube degradation and less wear, yielding longer bearing life. Higher operating speeds, such as in the case for spindles, result in increased productivity. Reduced product downtime with less maintenance provides higher product reliability.
A spokesperson explained, "As a case in point for spindles, Fischer introduced a high performance spindle using hybrid (steel races with ceramic CERBEC balls) angular contact bearings because of their inherent lower thermal expansion, smoother surface, increased hardness and stiffness, lighter weight, and corrosion/electrical-resistant properties. Its rigid shaft also contributes to reliability and long service life. Even at maximum spindle speeds and with shafts of large diameters, this type of bearing provides the rigidity required for 5-axis machines and the behavior of the spindle, as the shafts own frequency is much higher than its rotational frequency."
As another example, according to Luciano Pizzoni, stress analyst and R&D chief engineer at Umbra, "The CERBEC balls play an important role in our ballscrew technology. In applications where poor lubrication and the necessity of long life are pressing issues, we use larger ceramic balls spaced by smaller steel balls. With this new design, the rigidity of the system can be optimized and wear is no longer an issue. Components with ceramic balls are very forgiving. Using both ceramic and steel balls, which resist adhesion, provides higher load capacity, greater reliability, and an increase in the number of cycles."
According to Umbra, ballscrews with CERBEC components are capable of handling loads up to 1,800 KNewton, and have axial speeds between 150 and 160 meters per minute, with acceleration capabilities in the range of 3G.
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