October 13,2026
Typical Operating Environments Requiring Lightweight Bearings
Aerospace and UAVs
UAV gimbals, servos, aviation instruments, navigation systems, and radar are extremely weight-sensitive. Bearings must reduce weight as much as possible while maintaining precision, to improve flight performance and fuel economy. Gyro machines, helicopter UAV rotor heads, and tail booms also require lightweight and reliable bearings.
New Energy Vehicle Drive Systems
Components such as e-Axles, transmissions, and compressors in electric and hybrid vehicles need to achieve efficient power transmission within compact spaces. Bearing weight reduction helps lower overall vehicle energy consumption, optimize layout, and reduce rotational inertia to improve response speed.
Industrial Robots and Automation
Robot joints (wrists, elbows, waist) require high rigidity and lightweight design within limited space to reduce motion inertia and improve positioning accuracy and response speed. Thin-section bearings and crossed roller bearings are widely used in such scenarios.
Space Exploration and Mars Rovers
Space equipment such as Mars rovers is extremely sensitive to every gram of weight. Bearings must maintain high reliability in extreme environments while achieving maximum weight reduction. Polymer bearings can reduce weight by more than 80%.
Portable Medical Equipment and Precision Instruments
Weight-sensitive portable devices (such as portable diagnostic instruments) require lightweight bearings to reduce overall load while maintaining low friction and high precision.
HA-C Deep Groove Ball Bearings (NTN)
Special heat treatment technology is used to increase material surface hardness. While maintaining equivalent service life, the outer diameter is reduced by approximately 15%, width by approximately 30%, and weight by more than 55%. Suitable for new energy vehicle drive systems.
Thin-Section Bearings (Constant-Section Thin-Wall Bearings)
The cross-sectional thickness is much smaller than the inner diameter, and the cross-sectional dimensions remain constant within the same series, not increasing with inner diameter. Compared to standard bearings, weight can be reduced by more than 80%, and space savings can reach 85%. Suitable for aerospace, UAVs, robot joints, precision machine tools, and other fields.
Engineering Plastic Bearings (iglidur / igubal Series)
Made from high-performance engineering plastics, completely lubrication-free and maintenance-free. In Mars rover applications, weight is reduced by more than 80%; in helicopter UAV rotor applications, they are many times lighter than metal bearings, while also offering corrosion resistance, contamination resistance, and shock resistance.
Titanium Alloy Bearings
Density is only 60% that of conventional bearing steel, with weight reduced by approximately 30% (for example, model 363019A/YA drops from 5.32 kg to 3.92 kg), while maintaining high strength and high-temperature stability. Suitable for aviation, precision instruments, and gas turbines.
Crossed Roller Bearings (RA Type)
The RA type features a thin-section, lightweight design with a split outer ring structure, small volume, and high load capacity, allowing significant weight reduction of bearing housings or side pressure flanges. Most suitable for rotary joints such as robotic arms.
AXS Angular Contact Roller Bearings (Schaeffler)
Manufactured using forming technology, with bearing ring thickness starting from 1 millimeter, offering extremely low weight and the smallest design envelope while maintaining high load capacity. Suitable for robots, handling equipment, and high-precision transmission devices.
Lightweight Cage Design
Even without changing the rings, weight reduction can be achieved by simply changing the cage. SKF's new hybrid deep groove ball bearings use two-piece cages made of PEEK and PA66, which are 80% lighter than brass cages of the same size, while increasing the limiting speed by at least 60%.
If your equipment requires light weight required bearings but standard bearings cannot meet the requirements, please feel free to contact us. We can provide customized solutions tailored to your specific needs.
