Track Tac

Interesting....Better than ceramic???????

Think about this....without grease or lubrication, how long will they last before friction and heat kill them? Sure they will lay on a table and spin for a long time, but what will they do under a load, with no grease or lube, for any period of time?
 
No grease and no bearing cages equals less friction and heat. Good question asked, will they hold up under pressure? Time will tell but the theory and video is pretty cool.

DK
 
Don K said:
No grease and no bearing cages equals less friction and heat. Good question asked, will they hold up under pressure? Time will tell but the theory and video is pretty cool.

DK
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Wait wait, I always taught grease, oil or any lube prevents "Friction" is that true or false ?
 
Lake said:
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Wait wait, I always taught grease, oil or any lube prevents "Friction" is that true or false ?
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For anti- friction bearings (ball bearings, roller bearings and needle bearings), basically false. Ball, roller and needle bearings need lubrication for one or both of two reasons (neither of which involve reduction of friction): (1) to keep contaminants out of the bearings (usually a grease system) or flush contaminants from the bearings (usually an oil system), and (2) to assist in removing heat from the bearings by assisting in the conduction of heat away from the bearings to the housing in which the bearings are resident and, if present, to any cooling system that serves the housing. Over lubrication of ball, roller and needle bearings can cause failure, one of the more interesting ones (in heavily loaded ball or roller beatings) being hydraulic flaking of the surface of the bearing race due to a pressure wave developing in the lubricant, forcing it into the surface of the race enough to lift off flakes of metal. Given the relatively light loadings in kart axle bearings (compared to what they are capable of carrying), the cleaning portion of our bearing maintenance is more important than what lube we apply when we're done.

Bushings and babbit bearings are a whole different ballgame and require lubrication to form the fluid "wedge" that prevents or minimizes physical contact between the bearing and the shaft.
 
I don't know about being "better" than ceramic, but I would think the design of these bearings may actually be able to use ceramic balls, which would reduce rotating weight as well as improve heat tolerance properties. Just a thought...
 
Outrider. Isn't heat a result of friction ? Lubrication may not prevent, like Lake suggested, but it helps reduce heat.
 
Heat is a result of friction, but lubrication can't further reduce the friction in an anti-friction bearing (again, ball, roller or needle bearings); what friction is there is the nature of the beast and isn't reduced by lubrication (which actually adds fluid friction to the system), and lubrication's role (where heat can become an issue) is to assist in the transfer of the heat in the bearing to the housing that contains it (and any attached cooling system) to assist the cooling process. It doesn't reduce heat by reducing friction in these types of bearings, it reduces heat IN THE BEARING by assisting in the transfer of heat to the external environment.
 
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