Royal Cycle Rolling Out Ceramic Needle Roller Bearings

Royal Cycle Corporation recently started commercial production of ceramic needle-roller bearings after a long-term development program and intensive market evaluation, making the company the first maker of such products in the world.

GM Borson Huang claims that ceramic needle-roller bearings are much better than the current market mainstay, made of SUJ-2 bearing steel, because the former are lighter, can endure higher temperatures (up to 1,100 degrees Celsius, compared to the standard 800 degrees), and are more durable.

In terms of durability, they feature greater hardness, a lower heat-expansion coefficient that means no damage to the bearing cage, lower heat transmission, and much better drag/impact/bend resistance ability. In addition, surface roughness is only RZ 0.1, compared to 0.4 with steel counterparts, meaning significantly smoother rotation, I.e., much lower friction.

Another advantage of the ceramic bearing is that the ceramic will not experience any chemical reactions to other substances, especially oil lubricants, or deform with constant usage or as a result of sudden extreme temperature fluctuation. According to Huang, this is important in encouraging adoption for high-performance machinery or other applications, saving repair and maintenance expenses as well as elevating productivity.

The only problem with ceramic roller bearings, which has up to now held back their widespread adoption, says Huang, is their relatively high production cost and pricetags. The cost of a ceramic roller bearing is about 10-fold that of a steel counterpart, due mainly to the more complicated production process. However, with volume production a decrease to five-fold is within sight.

Huang says that his company is patenting the special formulas used in its models' ceramics, jointly developed by Royal Cycle and several foreign raw-material producers. Deepening know-how in materials combination and in furnace-production technology are also helping to lower costs and ensure better product performance. Though ceramic ball bearings were developed about 40 to 50 years ago and are now increasing in popularity, Huang states, until now no one has tried to mass-produce ceramic needle-roller bearings due mainly to cost concerns.

Huang believes that the bearings should initially be used in higher-end applications, such as high-speed rotating sections of high-end machinery or on the racing powered two-wheeler (PTW) piston connecting rods.

Huang explains, for example, that the PTW-tuning line used to improve racing PTWs' sudden-accelerating performance by grinding the piston rings thinner thus to decrease friction forces but now his company's ceramic needle-roller bearings have been proved to have even-greater performance-enhancing effects due to their light weight and lower friction forces (achieved with smoother surfaces).

Royal Cycle runs a plant in southern Taiwan, which has a monthly capacity of about 200,000 ceramic bearings. The company is already exporting to customers in Europe and the U.S., and Huang is very confident that sales will continue to grow rapidly.

Please contact the company for more information at: No. 16, Gungwei St., Tzguan Hsiang, Kaohsiung Hsien, Taiwan 826; tel: (886-7) 610-8286; fax: (886-7) 610-8288; e-mail: rcc@ms8.hinet.net; website: www.rcc.com.tw