Autonomous Decentralized Bearings...

Is this CCR required to be positioned in a specific orientation in relation to direction of loading? I wonder what is meant by "Specific Bearings"?

I am by no means a bearing expert, I just use caged bearings that run in applications that subject them at their absolute limits. The concept is interesting.

You can get them from the company website....

http://1st.geocities.jp/coo_space/ENG/engindex_e.html

Out of curiosity, I would like to see a spin up and coast down demo with the bearings in a vertical position.

Here you go Unredundant, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8N3N96gNlA

And thanks, SE.

I saw that on Solar Eagles link. (Thanks Solar) Is that demo skate laying on it's side or is it hanging vertically? I guess (not being a skater) that coasting downhill on your back is a test of bearing performance?

Maybe an against-company-policy-compressed air-blowgun nozzle spool up test is called for?

Unfortunately it is hard to see what the ball bearings are doing.

A good product but I wouldn't trust it myself for repeated sudden or heavy sideways loading without more information on bearing load distribution.

It's pretty clever, but it has to be oriented so that the load point is where the "leaf hole" is, i.e., on the bottom, generally. If you loaded it in another direction, balls would collide, followed by other unpleasantries.

I don't think sohttp://www.microblueracing.com/high-performance-steel-ceramic-bearings-racing.html

I'm still trying to get my head around no lubrication.

Once the balls are evenly spaced there are no sliding/slipping surfaces, only rolling surfaces, hence no friction and no need for lubrication.

This looks fantastic to me: I'm intrigued to know who would have rated the thread one star, presumably no one who is still present so we're unlikely to get an explanation.

It seems quite simple. Remove your retainer and a couple of your ball (bearings) and your good to go. Less rubbing together of the balls is always good.

Autonomous? Do they really have free will?

I think that means they find their own place, in other words their position is not controlled....Sometimes you have to borrow words or phrases that don't mean exactly what you want to say because it's a new concept...Maybe free-balling bearings could be used??

I see a possible problem with the bearing. The balls are making contact with each other. At the point of contact the surface of the ball is rotating in opposite directions. These impacts may not be enough to cause the friction which slows the bearing as a cage does. The friction at the point of contact would cause wear. More so then the contact with the bearing race as its contact is rolling in the same direction. The contact friction of the balls hitting will accelerate metal transfer. Over time putting flat spots on the surface of the balls.

Inline Skates Industry is always being bombarded with newly engineered bearings to make skates go faster. Pretty easy to take and replace a bearing in a skate wheel. Not so in some industrial equipment.

The article states:

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. In the video below, a bearing is rotated with a group of very unevenly spaced balls in it. Within a dozen or two turns, the groove has spaced them all out to just about even, and that's where they stay.

I agree with Randall that this is fantastic.

Yes I watched the video. Even googled it and watch some others on the bearing. Every one I watched just before the bearing hit the groove the bearing behind it made contact. As the the bearing has some interest to me. Have been using hybrids as replacements in high speed tools. These bearings are being reworked to make a hybrid. Something off the shelf would make it more accessible. Wouldn't have to wait the 4 weeks for them to tear a new bearing down and replace the steel balls with ceramic balls.

Just where I found hybrids. I now find these new no race bearings. Being promoted as the new best bearing. The new best bearing for an inline skate wheel.

This new cageless design is really very interesting. I like them.

If the major bearing manufacturers start stocking them in standard sizes then that will be a sign that they are as good as claimed.

I reckon bike racers might be the early adopters and testers.

They appear fine at low speed, but how much vibration and noise is there at full running speed? Those grooves and all those changes in velocity must be noisy!

As a reliability person I am always interested in things that reduce maintenance intervals or demonstrate greater service life. i.e. cost savings over time. So, now I want to see some actual wear studies, speed and load data, long term heat and dynamics information.

I know of a large number of machine designs that looked good on paper and ran great in static testing but failed miserably in the real world. A proposal from a manufacturer of a microwave "freeze" drier comes to mind.

I all I know is, from now on, I am going to test all the bearings I use, by spinning them real fast and timing how long it takes to coast to a stop.

Some years ago a few of us did that in a machining lab back in college with a dry ball bearing and an air hose.

FYI just make sure you are not in the same plane of the bearing race when a 1.5" OD bearing passes the 100 K RPM point. (BANG!!!)

Try it with an 8" gear with small tooth pitch and a pencil sized hole in the center.

It sounded like a turbine spooling up.