Development of High Durability Polymeric Bearing

A thin micro-motor has been developed comprising a molded polymeric rotor disk with cylindrical sleeve that functions as solid lubrication bearing. It is designed to overcome the frictional resistance and to provide vibration damping in the rotation. Accelerated ageing was conducted on this bearing system to assess the tribological endurance of plastic against surface wear. It was demonstrated that the wear resistance property of the plastic material can be significantly improved with Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon coating for more than 1×109 continuous cycles. The experimental results provide indication of good reliability for using polymeric material in small rotational mechanism.Copyright © 2007 by ASME