Nickel-titanium ball bearings are not afraid of corrosion

The American company Abbott Ball Company has developed a technology for the production of ball bearings made of nickel-titanium alloy, resistant to corrosion and deformation.

Conventional ball bearings made of steel alloys are subject to corrosion and deformation under extreme conditions, which is especially critical when it comes to aviation and astronautics. In 2004, the American company Abbott Ball Company began developing technology for the production of ball bearings from nitinol (nickel-titanium alloy).

The most common is Nitinol 55, a well-known “memory effect” alloy, that is, able to take on its original shape after significant deformations. Previously, when working with this alloy, researchers encountered severe temperature deformations of the bearing rings, which were made by casting.

The Abbott Ball Company developed a new version of the alloy, called Nitinol 60, which remained stable in size even after heat treatment. In collaboration with a team of technologists from the NASA Research Center, Abbott Ball specialists found that the best results are achieved not by casting blanks for bearings, but by using the powder metallurgy method. Nitinol powder in a special form is processed under high pressure and at high temperature, is sintered, forming a uniform high-quality material, not subject to corrosion and deformation.

One of the first commercial applications of ball bearings made of such an alloy could be their use in the wing mechanization systems of modern airliners. The fact is that anti-icing agents with which aircraft are regularly treated cause corrosion of conventional bearings.

On October 1, 2019 in Portland, Oregon, the group that developed this technology will receive an award from the American Metallurgical Society for achievements in the field of structural materials.