Ball bearings in the textile industry – why plastic beats metal

Patrick Czaja | 10. December 2020

Textile machines and their components are increasingly exposed to heavy loads. This increases the demands on the machines. Vibrations, different operating conditions, constantly changing loads and especially dirt and dust adhesion are challenges faced by plant operators in the textile industry. In addition, external factors such as humidity and strong fluctuations in temperature should not be disregarded. Maintenance work is therefore a difficult undertaking and is only on the agenda at longer intervals – and this is where xiros polymer ball bearings from igus play a role in the textile industry:

Especially in the textile industry, the absence of lubricants and the insensitivity of the bearing components to dust are important criteria. The low-maintenance and tribologically optimised ball bearings made of high-performance polymers meet every requirement. These do not require any additional lubrication and convince with long service life. In addition, the polymer ball bearings also start up much more easily, because they do not have to overcome the resistance of a lubricant. Metal ball bearings reach their limits here, as they tend to clog more quickly due to the dusty and dirt-prone application environment.

Do you need a special solution?

Benefit from almost infinite possibilities for designing a special ball bearing with design integration. Your component comes in the desired shape, quantity and material, because individual special parts are just as much a part of our portfolio as standard parts.

Our recommendation for ball bearings in the textile industry

For the application area of thread guiding, for example, we have our deep groove ball bearings with profiling in the installation sizes 608, 6000 and 6201 in our portfolio.