Needle Roller Bearings Co. Ltd (NBR), a leading manufacturer of needle roller bearings targeted for use in motorcycle engines, outboard motors and other high rotational speed engines, has chosen Victrex plc’s VICOTE® 804 Blk coating to replace copper and silver plating. The coating is believed to reduce the wear on the outer surface of the roller bearing, and thus can enable longer life of the actual cage.

Needle Roller Bearings Co. Ltd (NBR), a leading manufacturer of needle roller bearings targeted for use in motorcycle engines, outboard motors and other high rotational speed engines, has chosen Victrex plc’s VICOTE® 804 Blk coating to replace copper and silver plating. The coating is believed to reduce the wear on the outer surface of the roller bearing, and thus can enable longer life of the actual cage.

Needle roller bearings are manufactured predominantly for commercial markets including automotive and industrial, but are used in virtually every sector where high speed rotational equipment is employed. Traditionally, the outer surfaces of the bearing cage are plated with expensive copper and silver layers to reduce wear. Following tests under which the bearing was subjected to rotational speeds of 9000 rpm for over 100 hours, the copper and silver layers wore off, causing damage to the cage and possible premature failure of the bearing; however, the same test was conducted on a bearing coated with VICOTE 804 Blk, and the bearing cage showed no signs of wear at the end of the test. This wear performance was achieved with a coating 50% thinner than the traditional copper/silver plating.

“A further advantage of the VICOTE Coating solution is that the process for applying the coating is simpler and less damaging to the bearing cage than applying the traditional copper/silver plating. The process for applying the copper/silver plating to the bearing cage can cause hydrogen embrittlement of the bearing cage, which can also lead to premature, catastrophic, bearing failure,” said Louis Hsueh, plant manager, NRB Taiwan.

For more information, visitwww.victrex.com.