Do you want to know how the bearing has become the "legend of immortality" in the machine? Today, we will explore the "longevity secrets" of the bearing!
Bearings were first used in ancient times
Since ancient times, humans have developed a variety of ways to reduce friction. Now let's look at the examples of pyramids in Egypt.
Pyramids were built with huge, heavy stones stacked on top of each other. The sheer size of these monoliths is astonishing: how did the ancients move such heavy stones? A study of ancient Egyptian frescoes can be used to guess the answer.
There are many frescoes depicting pyramidal structures, in which we can see logs rolling under huge stones. Scholars believe that by rolling these logs, friction can be reduced, allowing for relatively small forces to move these extremely heavy stones.
Throughout the ages, human records of friction reduction have varied depending on the time period and method, but can be seen all over the world. This proves the importance of reducing friction for smoother motion throughout human history.
The first to think of using bearings with cages
Leonardo da Vinci was an outstanding artist from Italy and one of the typical "Renaissance people". It is not an exaggeration to call him the "father" of modern bearings.
Leonardo da Vinci was passionate and curious about everything, and made a lasting impression not only in the art world but also in the field of mechanical design. In one of his notebooks can be found sketches of bearings, which are indispensable parts of machinery. This unrivalled ingenuity has led to bearings that greatly reduce friction.
The structure is the structure of the upper and lower rings (seat rings) and the rolling ball (rolling element) sandwiched between the rings. Surprisingly, this sketch even includes a "cage" so that the balls do not touch each other.
This is almost the same bearing construction that we continue to use today. This "basic bearing structure" consisting of raceways, rolling elements ("balls" or "rollers") and cages was proposed about 500 years ago. It was thanks to Leonardo da Vinci that the bearing was able to achieve this milestone leap. But even if he could find such a basic load-bearing structure, it would be another matter to actually build and mass-produce such a device. Bearings were widely used in machinery, until the Industrial Revolution.
The popularity of bearings
The Industrial Revolution lasted roughly from the middle of the 18th century to the 19th century. Steel was produced in large quantities, which led to the first mass production of high-strength steel bearings. This means that bearings can be used in a wide range of industrial sectors. The use of bearings for axles was a particularly important discovery of the industrial age.
The first step is a ball bearing, which is used in the axle of the bicycle, which uses a "ball" as a rolling element. This became widely popular. Later roller bearings were developed. It used "rollers" as rolling elements and was used in the axles of horse-drawn carriages. The advent of bearing-based axles has made a huge leap forward in transportation and movement.
Almost at the same time, bearings began to be used in various industrial machinery, making a great contribution to industrialization. In the process of the industrial revolution, bearings have been in the dark to help industrial development, and have become an inseparable existence for human beings.
The history of bearings in Japan
It is said that the first bearings made in Japan were produced in 1916 to meet an order from the Imperial Navy. JTEKT's predecessor, Koyo Seiko (later Koyo Seiko Co., Ltd.), began manufacturing and selling bearings just five years later in 1921.
With the steady growth of demand for bicycles in Japan and the advent of automobiles, it seems that the bearing industry in Japan will steadily advance and become popular. The future is bright. But then the Second World War happened. Factories across Japan suffered tremendous war damage, and the bearing industry was hit hard.
However, Japanese bearing manufacturers refused to give in and developed a manufacturing process for high-quality bearings. The precision and performance of the bearings made in Japan are not only able to recover, but are better than ever.
As motorization increases, more and more bearings are being developed to improve the durability and reliability of automobiles, leading to a surge in demand for bearings in Japan. Bearings played a key role in Japan's miraculous economic growth during this era. Eventually, the precision and performance of Japanese bearings were recognized all over the world, allowing them to enter the international market. Now, with Japanese bearings becoming famous all over the world, about 30% of the bearings on the planet are the work of Japanese bearing manufacturers.
The evolutionary history of bearings is the history of the development of human civilization
If bearings hadn't been developed, humans might still struggle today to exert immense force to move heavy loads, not to mention that we would almost certainly not have all the modern conveniences and comforts that machines provide.
The birth and evolution of bearings have had an immeasurable impact on the development of human civilization.
Bearings are a product of the wisdom of our ancient ancestors and have played a key role in the history of industrialization, even if hidden.
The development history of bearings
The bearing is the support of the mechanical transmission shaft, which is an important guarantee for the performance, function and efficiency of the main engine, and is known as the "joint" of the machine. Its main function is to transmit force and motion, reducing friction loss.
I believe that few people know that the earliest origin of bearings is China, and it has a history of thousands of years.
The origin of China's bearings //
According to the latest archaeological records, the slow wheel was born 8,000 years ago, or has already evolved a stage. In March 2010, the discovery of a wooden potter's wheel base at the cross-lake bridge cultural site confirmed that China's potter's wheel technology was more than 2,000 years ahead of the two river basins in West Asia, that is to say, China began to use bearings earlier than West Asia, or the principle of using bearings.
The base of the wooden potter's wheel excavated from the cross-lake bridge cultural site
The base of this wooden potter's wheel resembles a trapezoidal round table, with a small raised cylinder in the center of the upper table, which is the shaft used for the potter's wheel turntable. The turntable supports the rotation by a shaft on a round table, which is the prototype of the bearing.
Schematic diagram of the work of the potter's wheel at the cross-lake bridge cultural site
The slow wheel of the bridge across the lake is the first time that human beings have used wheel axles to make pottery, and it is also the first time that bearings have been used in archaeological discoveries.
Schematic diagram of the restoration of the slow wheel device of the Northern Wei Dynasty in Datong City, Shanxi
1 car pit, 2 car piles, 3 car barrels, 4 wheel discs, 5 wheel disc center sites
Later, it was discovered that it was faster to use wooden wheels with large diameters for transportation, so the diameter of wooden wheels became larger and larger, and gradually evolved into wheels with axles, which formed the earliest prototype of wheels. Of course, the wheel is also an invention of our Chinese nation.
During the period of the Yellow Emperor 4,700 years ago, the first vehicle in human history drove onto the stage of history. The Yellow Emperor made a car, so it was called Xuanyuan. Xuan is a kind of car with a shed in ancient times, and the wheel is the basic component of the car. The emergence of sliding bearings has put forward the need for lubrication or promoted the development of tribology.
The Book of Songs is the earliest collection of poetry in China. Therefore, poetry probably arose between the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty and the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period, that is, from the 11th century BC to the 6th century BC. In the chapter of "The Book of Songs, the Wind and the Spring", there is "Carrying the fat and carrying the jurisdiction, and returning the car to the words." In ancient times, it was interpreted as "axle end key". Used in ancient cars, it is equivalent to what we now call pins, through the axle end, the wheel can be "governed", so that the wheel axial fixation; These poems are translated into modern Chinese, that is: use grease, lubricate the axle, check the pins at the end of the axle, drive away, and send me home. Hurry up and get to your hometown! Don't let me have a guilty conscience.
and jurisdiction
Qin (221-206 B.C.) The Han Dynasty had a rudimentary structure of bearings and bearing writing forms
Due to the Zhou, Qin, Han Dynasty on the bearing technology invention and application of practice, to the Qin and Han dynasties in some important cultural classics, has been recorded and often used, written mature bearing special words, among which the more common words are "shaft", "釭", "mace" and other words and "shaft" and other subject predicates (see "Shuowen Jiezi"). Contemporary Japanese bearing text expression is still "shaft acceptance", Qin Dynasty writing small seal, there are shaft, bearing, 釭, mace. The original meaning of the Han Dynasty text is explained, the "shaft" holds the wheel, the "Cheng" Feng also, the acceptance also, the "釭" hub in the iron also, the "Gong" axle iron also, it can be seen that the Qin and Han dynasties have established the bearing cultural concept and writing form.
Annular bronze artifacts with an inner cavity found in rural Shaanxi, China
(2nd century BC)
In the Yuan Dynasty (1206~1367), Jianyi used cylindrical rolling support technology
The simple instrument is simplified from the armillary sphere. The armillary sphere is mainly used for celestial observation, and its parts can be divided into two parts: support parts and moving parts. The supporting parts include the water pillar, the dragon pillar, the double ring of the heavenly meridian, the single ring of the equator, and the pillar of heaven in the center of the water pillar. The diagram below visualizes the main supporting decorative parts of the armillary sphere.
Schematic diagram of a simplified model of an armillary sphere and its components
Development of modern bearings //
The birth of the first set of domestic bearings in modern China
At the beginning of 1937, Wang Ruibao and Ma Genbao brought samples of "1511" bearing inner and outer rings, cages, steel balls and other samples from Wuxi to Qin Furong, the owner of Qin Fuxing's hardware stall, and put forward the idea of partnering to manufacture bearings. Qin Furong saw that the sample was similar to the Japanese NSK, and listened to Wang and Ma say that the cost of the steel ring forged with railway steel was only one-third of that of the Japanese goods, so he opened Qin Fuxing Machinery Factory at No. 48, "Yueguili", a branch lane in Mantingfang, and Wang Ruibao and Ma Genbao served as technical guidance.
At that time, the equipment was only two belt lathes, two pedal lever punching machines, and a drilling machine, and the lathes were used as grinders. In addition to the import of steel balls, the ferrule is forged by Gaoshun Taitie paving, the material is made of railway steel, and quenched with sodium hydride, the retainer is made of iron sheet, the potassium nitrate is used to make blue, and at the same time, the plug gauge and steel scale are used as measuring tools, and the first set of domestic "1308" double-row self-aligning ball bearings in Shanghai was born under such simple conditions. This is also the first set of domestic bearings in China, and the product brand is SRF.
Qin Fuxing Hardware Shaft Collar Iron Factory
From 1937 to 1945, more than ten workshops such as Qin Fuxing Hardware, Shanghai Jinchang Iron Factory, Rongtai New Machinery Factory, Qin Fuxing Machinery Factory, Jinxing Iron Factory, Yuan Xingchang Machinery Factory, Jincheng Machinery Factory began to manufacture bearings, thus laying the foundation for the production of Shanghai national bearings.
China's bearings have gone through a long history, but there is still a long way to go in terms of becoming bigger and stronger.
World Bearing Development History //
When it comes to the origin of foreign bearings, this has to be traced back to the ancient Egyptian period.
In the early form of linear motion bearings, a row of wooden poles was placed under a pry plate. This technique may date back to the construction of the Great Pyramids of Giza, although there is no clear evidence yet. Modern linear motion bearings use one operating principle, although balls are sometimes used instead of rollers.
Start-up stage
From heavy-duty wheel axles and machine tool spindles to delicate watch parts, rotating bearings are required in many applications.
The simplest rotary bearing is the sleeve bearing, which is simply a bushing sandwiched between the wheel and the axle.
This design was then replaced by rolling bearings, which replaced the original bushings with a number of cylindrical rollers, each of which acted like a separate wheel. The first rolling bearing with a cage was invented in 1760 by watchmaker John Harrison to make the H3 chronograph.
In the 17th century, Galileo Galilei made the earliest description of the ball bearing of the "fixed ball", or "cage ball".
For a long time afterward, the installation of bearings on the machine was not realized. The first patent for ball grooves was in 1794, when a Philip Vaughn ironsmith in Carmarasson, Wales, used ball bearings as axle bearings for horse-drawn carriages, and until the 50s and 60s of the 19th century, ball bearings were widely used on the axles of children's carousels, propeller shafts, machine gun turrets on warships, armchairs and bicycles.
In 1883, Friedrich Fischer, the founder of FAG, put forward the idea of using suitable production machines to grind steel balls of the same size and with accurate roundness. The foundation for the creation of an independent bearing industry was laid.
Ball mill designed by Friedrich Fischer
In 1895, Henry Timken designed the first tapered roller bearing, which was patented three years later and founded the Timken Company.
In 1907, Sven Winquist of the SKF Bearing Factory designed the first modern self-aligning ball bearings.
At that time, although the invention of bearings had been for a while, the industrial production of bearings was from scratch, just started, and was quite naïve.
Original drawing of a self-aligning ball bearing by Sven Winquist in 1907
Growth period
The two world wars stimulated the development of the military industry, the bearing military industry in the increasingly significant position, coupled with the rapid development of science and technology, the rapid growth of the world's bearing industry, the increase in bearing varieties, widely used in automobiles, aircraft, tanks, armored vehicles, machine tools, instruments, meters, bicycles and sewing machines and many other fields.
During the Second World War, with the modernization of the means of war, as well as people's awareness and attention to bearings, all countries are in urgent need of bearings, eager to establish a bearing industry, a large number of bearing factories have appeared in various countries.
Development period
With the rapid development of high and new technologies such as aerospace, electronic computers, optical and electromagnetic instruments, and precision machinery, the world bearing industry, which reflects the level of contemporary science and technology, has entered a new historical period of comprehensive innovation in manufacturing technology, rapid development of varieties, and vigorously improving performance and precision.
At present, there are tens of thousands of bearing varieties, extra-large bearings as large as 38 meters, micro bearings as small as a few tenths of a millimeter, that is, there are traditional single-row, double-row, multi-row ball bearings, roller bearings, needle roller bearings, tapered bearings, more lubricated bearings, self-lubricating bearings, angular contact bearings, transmitter bearings, universal joint bearings, ultra-thin-walled bearings, hub unit bearings, air bearings, linear bearings, superconducting bearings, magnetic bearings, etc.
The bearing industry has become a large climate, as a small bearing of parts and components has a corner, quite large-scale, not to be underestimated in a market, bearing trade ushered in a heyday. If it weren't for the invention of bearings, human beings would still be exerting a lot of effort to carry heavy loads. Moreover, I am afraid that there will not be so many machines in our lives to provide us with convenient and comfortable services. The birth and progress of bearings had a huge impact on the development of civilization. It can be said that the bearing is the crystallization of the wisdom and technology of the predecessors, and is the behind-the-scenes hero who promotes the "history of industrialization development".