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.