What do People Think of Plastic Bearing & Why They Are Wrong!

For many, combining the word “bearing” and “plastic” is seemed far-fetched.

 

In a world where many people still believe metal bearing is better. People tend to make baseless judgements towards plastic bearing. However, I can confirm that this is simply just a misconception. Plastic bearings have proven themselves reliable & are able to hold on their own.

When you think of how essential plastics have been integrated into majority of our daily lives, it is not a surprise that we can see plastic bearing start to replace its metal bearing counterpart. To understand better, let’s look at some of the misconceptions people have on plastic bearings.

Plastic Bearings have Lower Durability than Metal Bearing

In order to make a conclusion from this, firstly, we need to establish a few parameters:

• .      The application
•       Load criteria
•     Speed
•     Temperatures.

Once these are established, we can then start to find the suitable igus® polymer material for the application. If the application parameters are correct from the offset and remain unchanged, the plastic bearing chosen should fulfil the lifetime suggested.

In addition, catastrophic failure can be avoided when using igus high-tech polymer materials with wear properties. In addition, our iglidur® polymer materials are made from wear resistant, self-lubricating polymers so require no lubrication as opposed to metal bearings. Not only that, you can also use free lifetime calculator to make prediction of how long your bearing will last. Even you can plan for the preventive maintenance program for your equipment.

Compared to Metal, Plastic Bearing is Soft

This assertion is of course logical, however, as stated from the first point, it is also depending on the parameters of the application. We all know that Plastics are “softer” than metal. All its mechanical properties, such as compressive strength or surface hardness are significantly lower than metal. Plastic plain bearings are also “less durable” than metal.

However, the most important point here is that these are plain bearings and purely load-bearing elements. Plain bearings should be used dynamically and should not simply carry loads statically. And how do you achieve this movement with metal bearings? You lubricate them. So really it is not a case of plastics being softer, this becomes irrelevant when you consider the load bearing, as the igus® materials filled with reinforcing fibres and filaments make the bearings ideal with high forces and edge loads.

Plastic Bearing wall is Too Thin

To be frank, there is no actually direct correlation between bearing’s wall thickness and its strength capabilities. There are a lot more factors to be considered than just the thickness of the part.

Thin-walled bearing has its own benefit. Due to space constraints, a thin-walled component works more effectively than the thicker walled metal bearings. Moreover, due to the internal makeup of the igus® polymer bearings, the thinness of the bearings is not detrimental to the life span of the bearing. The polymers are able to dissipate heat which actually prevents failure

Many industries such as agriculture, medical, fitness, packaging, food, automotive, etc has seen tremendous use of polymer bearing into their applications. Polymer bearing has been replacing plain metallic bearing for decades, and igus has been one of the pioneer to start the switch.

Read more blogs about the benefits of igus® plastic bearings here.

The continued development, testing and investment that igus® makes every year, allows more and more applications to be realised and for igus® bearings to be implemented