The first set of ceramic bearings was born in NASA. Since the successful development of the first set of 1972 ceramic bearings, countries all over the world are competing to develop a new generation of ceramic bearings with higher performance. After nearly 40 years of hard work, the most prominent function of ceramic bearings is to greatly improve the service life and limit speed of bearings, and provide basic parts for the development of high-speed, ultra-high-speed and high-precision machine tools. In addition, it has achieved good results in high temperature, corrosion, insulation, vacuum, chemical industry and other industries. Nowadays, the world-famous bearing companies are developing and producing ceramic bearings and ceramic ball bearings, and the quality of products has become an important symbol to measure the strength of their enterprises. According to incomplete statistics, so far, there are more than a dozen countries that can produce ceramic bearings abroad, such as the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Russia, South Korea and Britain. Among them, the production of ceramic ball bearings abroad started earlier and was widely used, such as ceramic ball bearings for CNC machine tools, ceramic ball bearings for grinding machine motorized spindles and ceramic ball bearings for machine tool ball screws. The performance of ceramic ball bearings, such as high wear resistance, self-lubrication and ultra-high speed, has been fully exerted, and it has also contributed to high-precision machine tools, high-speed machine tools and special environmental equipment. As the core component of ceramic ball bearing, the research and development and competition abroad are also fierce. The ceramic balls produced by HIP method of Norton Company in the United States are world-class. At present, the leading companies in the research of ceramic ball bearings in the world are SKF in Sweden, FAG in Germany, Saint-Gobain in France, NSK, Guangyang and NMB in Japan.

Development Status of Domestic Ceramic Bearings and Ceramic Ball Bearings

1. China's research on ceramic bearings started late. At present, all universities and research institutes in China are engaged in the research and development of ceramic bearings and ceramic ball bearings: Shanghai Silicate Research Institute, Shanghai Materials Research Institute, Shandong Craft Ceramics Research Institute, Guangdong University of Technology, Tianjin University and Luozhou Research Institute. Domestic ceramic bearing manufacturers are mainly located in Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang. Except for some samples made by Luozhou Institute and Shanghai Silicate, no industrialized enterprises have been seen. Compared with foreign countries, the development situation of ceramic bearings in China is not optimistic. There are few domestic enterprises that can produce ceramic bearings on an industrial scale. The root cause is of course the influence of many factors, such as technical level, talents and funds. In particular, the market is uncertain and confidence is insufficient. At present, there are still some problems in the research and development of ceramic bearings and ceramic ball bearings in China, which seriously restrict the development of ceramic bearings and ceramic ball bearings in China.