The ceramic material which is used in these ball bearings is the silicon nitride or silicon carbide or zirconium.

This material was developed for use in aerospace shuttles when they entered the earth’s atmosphere. These are called the heat shields on the exterior of the space shuttles. These are made up of highly processed silica and ceramic material.

The advantage that these offer is immense as these are virtually indestructible and have advantages over the traditional steel balls. The balls are processed so that they are not brittle which a drawback of the ceramic ball bearings was once.

The tests have proved that the ceramic ball bearings have longer life shelf as opposed

to the conventional steel balls. In the conventional ball bearings the surface wear is very common and that causes the surface to weld together and get damaged even during the lubrication. That is not the case with ceramic ball bearings. Also there is less wear and tear the side effect is that even the lubricants have a longer shelf life.

The net effect is that running speed is 40-50% greater than the steel ball bearings as well as longer lube life for the lubricant. Most of these ceramic ball bearings are used in wide range of industries beginning with aircrafts, biotechnology equipment, pumps and compressors and even the precision mills and other uses wherever there is need for high speed as well is high heat generated.

There are two types of ceramic bearing i.e hybrid ceramic ball bearings and Full Ceramic Bearing. The hybrid ceramic bearing have a steel inner and the outer rings are formed with ceramic balls whereas in case of full ceramic bearing the inner and the outer rings and the balls are made of ceramic only. There are many kinds of ceramic materials, the most common ceramic materials are Si3N4 which is defined as the silicon nitride ceramic material and is black in color. The other kind of ceramic material is known as the silicon carbide material or SiC and is also black in color. The zirconium dioxide or ZrO2 is also known as zirconia or zirconium oxide, they are white in color, this ZrO2 or zirconia ball looks exactly like a pearl. It has been known that the ceramic material is not stronger than a steel, but ceramic bearing are lighter and have lower friction than that found in a steel which makes ceramic bearing go faster with lower heat generated. More then a decade the ceramic ball bearings have been used for cutting tools, turbines, satellites and even in formula 1 racing.

Few of the most important component of the ceramic ball bearings are:

1. Thermal Expansion: On of the utmost feature of the ceramic is that it  expands and contracts with changes in temperature which is like 35% less than steel, thus allowing the cyclist with less amount of vibration and offers smoother motion.

2 . Less Conductivity: The Ceramics are electrically NON-conductive, and chemically inert, thus do not suffer from oxidation and the rust that degrades the surface of a traditional steel ball bearing.

3. Weight Reduction: Silicon nitride ceramic balls are only about 40% of the weight of steel ball bearing which means that less weight equals to less rotating mass, making high speed, acceleration and deceleration possible with less effort.

4. Modulus of Elasticity: Ceramic is 50% harder, which allows it to takes more amount of work to alter its original shape and size.

The ceramic balls bearings weigh up to 40% less than steel bearing balls simply depending upon the size thus reducing the centrifugal loading and skidding which means that the hybrid ceramic bearings can operate 20% to 40% faster than conventional bearings. This reduction in force reduces the friction and the lighter ball allows the bearing to spin faster, and uses less energy to maintain its speed.