Special Bearings Serve Electric Motors, MRIs, Electric Traction Motors in Railroad Applications

BOSTON, MA… Emerson Bearing Boston announces an expanded line of bearings for electric motors, medical equipment such as magnetic resonance imagers (MRIs) and other "high voltage" applications.

Bearings for Electrically Charged, Severe Environments

Electrical current can be incredibly damaging to metal components. For bearings, it can cause a wide range of problems, including fluting in the races, pitting of the ball bearings, and degradation of lubrication. Electric motors of all kinds, electric traction motors in railroad applications, and medical equipment such as MRIs, for instance, all involve high-stress environments with a great deal of electrical activity.

Emerson Bearing offers ceramic bearings, as well as ceramic insulated metal bearings, which are ideal for highly electrically charged applications. Ceramic materials, with a few rare exceptions, are very poor conductors of electricity; although they can accept large voltages, they are able to dissipate that electricity extremely effectively. The passing electricity causes little to no degradation of the bearings.

In addition to electrically charged environments, Emerson Bearing provides bearings for other severe environments, such as corrosive and high temperature environments.

"In general, standard AISI 52100 bearings are unable to withstand electrically Charged and other severe environments, so special materials are often needed to produce rolling components," explained Steve Katz, president of Emerson Bearing. " For these circumstances, AISI 304, AISI 440, AISI 630, titanium, ceramic, and grease-free bearings may be used."

For more information, visit www.emersonbearing.com