Cerobear (www.cerobear.de) had a booth at the latest PRI convention and they claimed some F1 teams are currently using them not only as wheel and clutch bearings but as main bearings as well. They had a set of main bearings in Aurora IRL size on display and mentioned that they could make bearings for any journal size. Costly too at something like 2000 USD PER main IIRC.
I had not read of Cerobear in any of the race engine journals or from you guys, so to hear they're in F1 was quite surprising. Last I heard the big thing was running bearingless, making do with DLCs instead. Has DLC been replaced with ceramic bearings or do you think Cerobear is just making wild claims since they know the use of ceramic bearings in current F1 stuff cannot be confirmed by anyone outside the industry?
What do you guys think?
Cerobear ceramic main and rod bearings?
Started by
shaun979
, Dec 21 2004 03:01
5 replies to this topic
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#2
desmo
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Posted 21 December 2004 - 07:07
Cerobear, I believe, published an SAE paper on angular contact ceramic wheel bearings in F1, within it admitting supplying teams with transmission and clutch bearings in ceramic hinting at applications for internal engine bearings in F1 if I remember correctly. I'd be a little surprised to find them in places where plain bearings are currently used though.
#3
scarbs
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Posted 21 December 2004 - 08:51
I asked this question to Rob White (Renaultex Cosworth) he confirmed although some ceramic roller bearings are used in the engine, they have not replaced the plain bearings and ar enot used everywhere a roller bearign could be used.
#4
shaun979
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Posted 22 December 2004 - 11:01
According to the Cerobear rep at PRI, some current F1 engine are running Cerobear main bearings.
Scarbs, I'm curious to know roughly when you asked Rob White the question. Thank you.
Scarbs, I'm curious to know roughly when you asked Rob White the question. Thank you.
#5
scarbs
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Posted 04 January 2005 - 14:20
Roughly in Early december 2004.....
#6
Ben
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Posted 05 January 2005 - 16:59
Cerobear have been mentioned in articles in the subscribtion automotive journals for a couple of years. It was at least two years ago that they had an article in Auto Technology with section views of F1 gearbox and wheel bearings.
The key advantage of ceramic bearings in high speed applications is that in these situations a conventional metallic bearing can be limited by the hertzian stresses on the race (i.e. speed dependant) rather than the actual forces involved, hence a ceramic bearing (more accurately a hybrid bearing with ceramic balls/rollers and metal races) can be made smaller because the lighter rolling element create smaller stresses in the race.
Ben
The key advantage of ceramic bearings in high speed applications is that in these situations a conventional metallic bearing can be limited by the hertzian stresses on the race (i.e. speed dependant) rather than the actual forces involved, hence a ceramic bearing (more accurately a hybrid bearing with ceramic balls/rollers and metal races) can be made smaller because the lighter rolling element create smaller stresses in the race.
Ben
