High Precision Ball Bearings Special Applications
High Precision Ball Bearings Special Applications
High Precision Ball Bearings Special Applications
KG
Äußere Bayreuther Str. 230 · D-90411 Nürnberg
Phone: +49 (0) 911-5691-0 · Fax: +49 (0) 911-5691-221 High precision ball bearings
Mail: info@gmn.de
www.gmn.de Special applications
Ball bearings:
Phone: +49 (0) 911-5691-249 · Fax: +49 (0) 911-5691-587
Mail: vertrieb.kula@gmn.de
Contents: About Us
Special Applications
Manufacturing Technologies
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The Company
Precision as tradition
Leonardo da Vinci himself invented the principle of the ball bea-
ring. Would he ever have imagined the maximum speeds, ball bea-
rings could reach in the 21st century and the loads they would have
to withstand?
From the beginning, GMN has specialized in products for high pre-
cision and high speed applications.
Precision as standard
Today, family owned and managed GMN is run by the fourth gene-
ration. The company’s following three product areas benefit from
almost a century of ongoing development work and production
know-how about ball bearings:
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Quality as benchmark
To meet our customers’ requirements on our products is only one
part of our job. The real goal of efficient quality management at all
levels and throughout all processes is the consistence of maintai-
ning the highest standard across all product areas under cost-
efficient aspects:
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The Process of Innovation
Consultation comes first
As soon as standard bearings do not fulfill any longer the required
specification regarding geometry, precision, material as well as tri-
bological and application-specific requirements, special bearings
are requested. Especially for the application in our customers‘ in-
novative products, we often develop pre-finished bearing systems
up to the start of serial production.
ger, higher load, faster, more precise – GMN. Our special bearings
set technical benchmarks for a lot of applications. Hereby, we focus
on areas of technology where we can contribute our strengths and
expert knowledge.
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• Product improvements
• Further developments
• Weak-point analyses
• Bearing examinations
Call us at:
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Touchdown Bearings
The use of magnetic bearings gets more and more important for CO2 Optimized engineering
laser systems, liquid pumps as well as in the optical industry.
GMN has successfully been promoting the development and produc- The design of the touchdown bearing arrangement has a major
tion of touchdown bearings since the mid-nineties. influence on the dynamic behaviour of the shaft during emer-
gency operation. Triple bearing systems (one pair of spindle bea-
rings with a deep groove ball bearing) or quadruple bearing sys-
tems (two pairs of spindle bearings) can be implemented.
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Low-cost solutions
• Speed coefficient: 2.2 x 106 mm/min
• Mass of rotating parts: < 1.5 kg
• Atmosphere: Fore-vacuum
• Bearing design: Series 618 / full complement
• Ring material: 100Cr6
• Ball material: 100Cr6
• Lubrication: Ball coating and oil
High-end solutions
• Speed coefficient: 2.2 x 106 mm/min
• Mass of rotating parts: < 3.5 kg
• Atmosphere: Aggressive gases
• Bearing design: Series 618 / full complement
• Ring material: HNS (High Nitrogen Steel)
• Ball material: Silicon nitride (Si3N4)
• Lubrication: Oil
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Vacuum Technology
In close cooperation with industrial partners, GMN develops overall Optimized engineering
concepts for complex bearing systems, especially for turbo molecular
pumps (TMP). For turbo molecular pumps GMN develops custom made high pre-
cision ball bearings with special dimensions, designs and cages.
• Long life
• Absolute reliability
• High speeds
• Low noise level
• Low vibration
• Cleanliness
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Medical Technology / X-Ray
Based on bearings and bearing units for more than 100,000 X-ray Optimized engineering
tube systems – amongst them one of the first tubes world-wide
which enabled X-rays of the heart – GMN has been an innovative GMN coats components such as bearing rings, sliding fits and balls
and reliable partner to medical technology for decades. on its own PVD sputter system.
Ball coatings in lead or silver with a thickness of nanometers
(10-9 m) have resulted from various research projects and are the
basis for the low-noise, low-vibration, particle-free GMN bearing
systems which perform impressively in their various applications.
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Mammography
• Temperatures of up to 400° C
• Pb-coated balls
• Running noise < 52 dB
Computed tomography
• Temperatures of up to 550° C
• Ag-coated balls
• Centrifugal forces of up to 16 g
• Running noise < 55 dB
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Bearing Systems
GMN develops and produces ready-to-install, complex bearing sys- Optimized engineering and
tems apart from special bearings. The customer can concentrate on
production from one single source
his core competencies by procuring the entire bearing system.
The success of a product often depends on the interplay of many
details far beyond the ball bearing layout. Finally, everything has to
fit perfectly. Thus shaft and housing fits and internal preloads are
optimized for the respective application and negative side effects
must not arise from the lubricant used in connection with the exi-
sting work environment.
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We provide:
Engineering:
Production / purchase:
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Measurement and
Navigation Technology
More than 40 years ago GMN started with the production of special Optimized engineering
bearings for navigation systems thereby establishing the long-stan-
ding company tradition in measurement technology. The development and manufacture of products and services in
measurement technology make high demands on design, produc-
tion, measuring systems and component handling. 100% testing
of individual components and complete systems is an essential
prerequisite for constant quality at the highest levels of precision.
Precision guaranteed
GMN bearings and bearing units for measurement technology
feature extremely high precision and solid quality, combined with
limited dimensions and low weight. Products are e.g.:
• Shaft encoders
• Navigation systems (e.g. gyro compass)
• Probe heads of coordinate measuring systems
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Machine Tool Applications
GMN is the leading manufacturer of machine tool spindles world- Optimized engineering
wide. This technical competence is, of course, used to continuously
improve our bearing technology. GMN develops special custom de- For GMN, flexibility is not just a slogan, but an indispensable part
signed solutions in close cooperation with customers for all fields of of the total concept.
modern machine tool applications. • Production of small batches under series conditions
• Determination of suitable lubricants with the support of experi-
enced lubricant manufacturers
• Special designs such as cages, matching, contact angle and bea-
ring clearances
• In-house test facilities help to determine reliable reallife data
• Optimized bearing configurations allow extremely high speed
coefficients
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Standard Program
GMN manufactures spindle bearings and deep groove bearings Spindle bearings
in precision classes P4/ABEC7 to P2/ABEC9 to the highest specifica-
tions. Our reliability, precision and quality set international stan- Spindle bearings of various types can be used universally:
dards. Bearing types S
Bearing types SM
Bearing series
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Materials
GMN ball bearings with rings and balls made of ball bearing steel
100Cr6 (SAE52100) are used for normal applications. For applica-
tions with high speeds and high loads, hybrid bearings with rings
made of 100Cr6 and balls made of ceramic (e.g. silicon nitride
Si3N4) are often a reasonable alternative.
KH bearing
Cages
GMN ball bearings are available with standard cages made of
textile reinforced phenolic resin which are guided on the outer or
inner ring. Other bearing designs and materials (such as TORLON,
Al-Bronze) can be used for customer-specific applications.
More than 20 years ago, GMN developed and launched the low-
wear TXM cage made of PEEK (polyetheretherketone). It has been
sold over a hundred thousand times and is still state of the art. It
was especially designed for grease lubrication and allows opera-
ting temperatures of up to 250 °C. The optimized ball pockets serve
as a grease reservoir and guarantee a long life. The TXM cage has
proven to be a reliable solution to cage vibrations.
TXM cage TA cage
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Sample Production and
Precision Machining
GMN production technologies are optimally suited to the require- Precision machining of bearing rings
ments of high precision ball bearings and complex bearing systems.
For the precision machining of bearing rings GMN has machinery
at its disposal that is optimized for the serial production of high
precision ball bearings.
Special designs
• Thin-walled bearings
• Flange bearings
• Special dimensions
Materials
• Chrome steel (100Cr6)
• Stainless steel
• HNS steel (High Nitrogen Steel)
• High-temperature steel
Prototype production under serial conditions
The production of prototypes under serial conditions is a basic
element of GMN‘s philosophy. Thus uniform quality is guaranteed
after product approval already at the start of series production.
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Balancing
The balancing quality of the rotating components is substantial
for the functionality of the final product, especially when very high
speeds are required. For this reason, GMN carries out custom desi-
gned precision balancing for many components.
Tool-Making
The tools and equipment required for production and assembly
are individually and promptly manufactured in our tool-making
division which is especially geared to our machinery and product
range.
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From Measurement
to Assembly
The credo of the precision measuring division is accuracy. Measurement technology
Working independently as a service provider, it carries out all
measurements of precision parts. This covers goods received, the
current production as well as examinations within the scope of be-
aring analyses.
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Assembly
The smooth interplay between human, material and system al-
lows us to assemble ready-to-install prefinished units from a sin-
gle source at a quality level that meets the highest standards.
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PVD Coating
Fields of application
GMN has been coating components for different fields of appli-
cation since 1996 on an in-house PVD sputtering system (Physical
Vapour Deposition) using a coating chamber which was optimized
for ball bearing applications:
Coating examples:
• Bearing rings
• Shafts and axles
• Cages
• Balls
Materials
Depending on the field of application various ultra pure materials
(targets) are used as an undercoating or functional coating:
• Silver (Ag)
• Lead (Pb)
• Gold (Au)
• Molybdenum disulphide (MoS2)
Technology
To be able to efficiently coat three-dimensional surfaces the work
piece holders are individually adapted. Technological know-how
and our experience in PVD coating provide the basis for many de-
velopments and products.
GMN Cleaning
GMN Paul Müller Industrie GmbH & Co. KG, the family enter- Before PVD coating or as final treatment for vacuum applications,
prise now run in the 4th generation, produces with the experience the components are cleaned in several processing steps:
of more than 90 years high precision ball bearings, machining
• Ultrasound cleaning
spindles, freewheel clutches and non-contact seals for a wide
range of applications. Most of our products are made for special • Degreasing
applications on customer requests. • Vacuum drying
• Plasma cleaning
GMN – Safeguarding the future • High-precision and programmable XY(Z) measuring table
• Analysis and coating thickness measurement of very thin films
For GMN, progress means the best possible customer support
and multi-coating systems
combined with performance-oriented optimization of its
technical products. This claim is realized at GMN under especially • Analysis of the basic material through a coating system
strict observance of national and international environmental • Autofocus or visual focus setting
standards with regard to efficient, responsible utilization of
ecological resources.
Internet
At our Internet site www.gmn.de we provide comprehensive
product information that can be downloaded.
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