Ultra-precision machining technology
Minebea has cultivated ultraprecision machining technologies as it has developed its bearing operations
A ball bearing is a typical machine-processed part and usually comprises an outer and inner ring; one or two retainers, which keep the balls in place; shields, protective covers fitted onto the outer rings; and snap rings. Very little about this basic design has changed in more than a century.
Today, however, ball bearings-particularly miniature and small-sized ball bearings-are the most crucial high-precision machined components in industry and the key element in detarmining the performance and quality of innumerable products essential to contemporary life, including PCs and other information and telecommunications equipment and household electric alappliances.
The precision of a ball bearing is determined by several factors, including the raceway roundness of the inner and outer rings, sphericity of balls and the raw materials used in each component. Improving precision demands uncompromising strictness on all counts. Moreover, the ability to mass produce high-precision ball bearings while ensuring a stable level of quality requires production lines composed of high-precision machining and assembly equipment, as well as high-level maintenance technology to ensure line efficiency.
The specialized expertise Minebea has amassd over the past 50 years enables it to achieve levels of precision that competitors cannot match simply by using state-of-the-art production equipment. The difference is our vertically integrated manufacturing system, whereby we conduct all ball bearing manufacturing processes-from machining to final assembly and testing-in-house.This system ensures the same superior quality for ball bearings produced at any of our mass-production bases worldwide.
Fluid dynamic bearings Utilizing our ultraprecision machining techology
A good example of Minebea's ultraprecision machining technologies at work is our fluid dynamic bearings, for which demand is expected to rise sharply in the future. The basic structure of a fluid dynamic bearing comprises a shaft, sleeve and plate-essentially the same as that of our global market-leading pivot assemblies for HDDs.
This has given us a considrable competitive advantage, in terms of a quality and manufacturing costs, in mass producing these revolutionally bearings.
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| Pivot assemblies | Fluid dynamic bearings |
Minebea Small Motors and other Products are also using Ultraprecision machining technology
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