Low Temperature, High Vacuum Bearings 1

[Mark172]

Hi All,

I'm having a hell of a time finding a supplier of low temp high vacuum bearings with lead times under 14 weeks. Does anyone know of a good supplier? Basic (flexible) requirements:

Temp: -100C to 50C
Vacuum: to 10^-7 Torr
Radial load: 100 lbf
Outgassing: NASA spaceflight requirements (<1% TML, <0.1% CVCM)

Any suggestions you have are greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Mark172]

I apologize that I forgot one more key piece of information: these are small bearings, ~1" diam.

 

[asimpson]

Is this for a mechanical feed-through into vacuum chamber?

If not would all ceramic ball bearings fit the bill? No lub. or plastic parts.

 

[tbuelna]

Mark172-

I did some mechanical systems design work on the Shuttle program and the typical radial ball bearing used for mechanisms located in the payload bay was 440C race/ball material. These were standard catalog instrument type bearings, except that we would solvent clean and re-lubricate them with a low-temp vacuum grease like Braycote 600EF. If we needed a shaft seal to keep the grease from migrating we would use PTFE Omniseals, provided the shaft surface speed was low.

A standard 440C instrument ball bearing with an OD under 1.0" should easily handle a 100lbf radial load. There are dozens of companies that offer such standard catalog ball bearings, so it should be no problem to obtain a small quantity in less than 14 weeks.

Hope that helps.
Terry

 

[Mark172]

Terry, that's just the kind of information I was hoping for. Thanks so much! This gives me enough of a lead that I think I'll be able to find a good solution.

Mark