Ceramic Bearing Vs Hybrid Ceramic

The first thing that strikes the eye when looking at bicycle bearings is the difference in price between steel bearings and hybrid ceramic bearings.

Ceramic bearing vs hybrid ceramic.

Hybrid ceramic bearings are the equivalent of trying to run a locomotive on an asphalt road the hardness differential causes the road raceway to become damaged. This is mostly due to the additional time spent to perfect a quality ceramic ball. Cost of purchase for ceramic and steel bearings. Because of the ceramic balls hybrid.

While they use ceramic balls these bearings are paired with metal inner and outer rings. In addition to being excellent electric insulators hybrid bearings have a higher speed capability and will provide longer service life than all steel bearings in most applications. They are much like ss bearings in that the races and cage will be stainless but diverge by employing ceramic balls instead. This is achieved by using two races to hold the balls and to spread the load through the balls.

In addition to being excellent electric insulators hybrid bearings have a higher speed capability 1 2 1 5 time limit of rotations compared to steel bearing and will provide longer service life lower friction and a lower level of energy consumption than all steel bearings. Hybrid ceramic bearings have traditional 52100 steel or stainless steel rings with ceramic silicon nitride si3n4 balls. The bearing balls are almost always either silicon nitride si3n4 which are black ceramic balls or. Total power saving the graph below shows how much power could be saved over 1000km between different bearing brands and their seal types.

Mrc hybrid ceramic ball bearings use a combination of traditional 52100 steel rings precision matched with silicon nitride ceramic balls. Hybrid bearings are a mixture of ceramic and steel materials. Hybrid bearings are often considered the perfect choice for spinners and with good reason. Hybrid bearings sit between full ceramic and steel options.

Using this combination allows for higher speeds than full ceramic options as the less brittle metal rings are not as prone to sudden catastrophic failure under high speed or load. Ceramic hybrid bearings are available in variety of sizes and styles. Full ceramic bearings can run without lubrication. When most people think of ceramic bearings they are usually actually referring to hybrid.

As the bearing race rotates it causes the balls to rotate. Below we go into a brief description explaining the role of ceramic bearings and then compare hybrid vs.