The History Of Bearings 2

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Timeline of Bearings History

Bearings Create Better Life — SuperTembo

 

2600 BC – The Ancient Egyptians use a form of roller bearings to help move stone pieces during the construction of the Pyramids

 

40 BC – Early example of a wooden ball bearing supporting a rotating table was retrieved from the remains of a Roman ship in Lake Nemi, Italy

1500 AD – Leonardo da Vinci described a type of ball bearing

1794 – First patent for ball race by Philip Vaughn of Carmarthen, Wales

1839 Isaac Babbit invented an anti-friction alloy with a low melt temperature

1883 – FAG begins grinding balls of equal size and roundness forming the creation of an independent bearing industry

1898 – First patent issued for Timken Tapered roller bearings

1907 – Sven Wingquist of SKF invents the modern self-aligning ball bearing

1917 – U.S. Bearing Manufacturers create an informal group to aid bearing manufacturing for World War I, which led to the founding of ABMA

1934 – AFBMA is incorporated as an organization in the State of New York

1960 – Elasto-hydrodynamic theory explains the mechanism of why bearings and gears work led to advances in grindings precision and ultrasonic equipment

1970– Intel invents the microprocessor and consistent precision control of machine tools impacting both size and life of bearings

In the early 1980s,  Pacific Bearing’s founder, Robert Schroeder, invented the first bi-material plain bearing which was size interchangeable with linear ball bearings. This bearing had a metal shell (aluminium, steel or stainless steel) and a layer of Teflon-based material connected by a thin adhesive layer.

History of the Ball Bushing® Bearing
In 1945 the Ball Bushing bearing was invented by John Thomson Sr.  The bushing was the solution to the stick-slip problem in the linkage used to change the pitch of propeller blades in aircraft.  Ball bearings eliminated the stick-slip, binding, and chatter of plain bearing.  Ball re-circulation virtually eliminates wear and provides a constant coefficient of friction as low as 0.001. The Steel ‘A’ bearing was released in 1953.  The ‘A’ bearing design is still being produced today.
For more than 70 years, Thomson has been a leader in product development and innovation of linear motion technology.

The History Of Bearings -1

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Bearings Create Better Life –From SuperTembo

The history of bearings 1

The invention of the rolling bearing, in the form of wooden rollers supporting, or bearing, an object being moved is of great antiquity, and may predate the invention of the wheel.

Though it is often claimed that the Egyptians used roller bearings in the form of tree trunks under sleds, this is modern speculation. They are depicted in their own drawings in the tomb of Djehutihotep  as moving massive stone blocks on sledges with liquid-lubricated runners which would constitute a plain bearing. There are also Egyptian drawings of bearings used with hand drills

The earliest recovered example of a rolling element bearing is a wooden ball bearing supporting a rotating table from the remains of the Roman Nemi ships in Lake Nemi, Italy. The wrecks were dated to 40 BC.

Leonardo da Vinci incorporated drawings of ball bearings in his design for a helicopter around the year 1500. This is the first recorded use of bearings in an aerospace design. However, Agostino Ramelli is the first to have published sketches of roller and thrust bearings. An issue with ball and roller bearings is that the balls or rollers rub against each other causing additional friction which can be reduced by enclosing the balls or rollers within a cage. The captured, or caged, ball bearing was originally described by Galileo in the 17th century.

The first practical caged-roller bearing was invented in the mid-1740s by horologist John Harrison for his H3 marine timekeeper. This uses the bearing for a very limited oscillating motion but Harrison also used a similar bearing in a truly rotary application in a contemporaneous regulator clock.