Today's machinery design engineers are constantly looking for bearing lubrication approaches that will enhance overall performance while cutting costs, which is almost the same as what our R&D engineers developing CSB self-lubricating bearings have been working on for several years. In particular, they have been striving to increase bearing service life by improving the lubrication performance and wear resistance of self-lubricating bearings.
In the case of self-lubricating bearings, lubrication and wear resistant bearing ability are simultaneously complementary and mutually contradictory aspects. They are complementary because abrasion-resistant materials usually also offer excellent lubricating performance, and contradictory because increasing lubricating performance will affect load-bearing performance under high-wear conditions to a certain degree. Our CSB bearing material engineers are therefore trying to solve the question of how to optimally combine the lubricating and wear-resistant properties of self-lubricating bearings.
As many experienced machinery design engineers are well aware, one of the most common mistakes in bearing design is failure to address situations when a supply of lubricating oil is not practical.
From a theoretical perspective, sealed and oil feed bearing designs will encounter situations where maintenance is not needed or cannot be performed.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of application environments are not like this.
In today's application environments, it is very common for oiling areas to not receive reasonable maintenance. This situation will cause oil lubrication and mixed lubrication to drop, and bearing life will be limited.
Bearings requiring regular maintenance typically receive lubricant only twice in their service life: The first time is when the manufacturer produces the equipment and the second time is when the equipment suffers bearing failure due to lack of oil or grease, and is sent back to the plant for service.
True CSB oil-free bearings can eliminate the following items:
(1)oil nipples, (2) automatic oiling systems, (3) the cost of lubricants, (4) labor cost of regular inspection and maintenance, (5) *maintenance cost in the event of a potential failure, and (6) *cost of work stoppage in the event of a potential failure.

If a lubricant is not used properly to maintain oiled bearings, the bearings may potentially fail, and the overall cost of this type of bearing use will far exceed that of CSB self-lubricating bearings. As the vast majority of manufacturers are aware, the cost of purchase, installation, oiling, and oiling-area maintenance for oiled bearings is at least twice that of self-lubricating bearings, and may even be four times as much. It is clear that external lubrication is a fickle design variable for contemporary machinery design engineers. As soon as equipment is delivered to a customer, the customer must properly service the bearings, and may need to deal with various potential malfunctions, which may cause customers to hold the manufacturer liable for quality or service costs. If you are worried about later maintenance issues, the best solution is to use CSB self-lubricating bearings. Self-lubricating bearings constitute an ideal solution because they can thoroughly lubricate the contact surface, and do not require the use of lubricating oil or other oil/grease, which can absorb dust and grime, as well as cause contamination of the working environment. In contrast, CSB self-lubricating bearings do not need a special operating environment, nor do they require long-term maintenance.
Depending on material, CSB self-lubricating bearings can be classified as metallic and nonmetallic self-lubricating bearings. Metallic sliding bearings can be further classified as composite bearings and metal-based self-lubricating bearings. Non-metallic sliding bearings can be classified as plastic plain bearings, fiber-wound bearings, and plastic linear bearings. According to overall operating cost calculations, the TCO of conventional bearings > metallic self-lubricating bearings > non-metallic self-lubricating bearings. This also implies that CSB plastic bearings, fiber-wound bearings, and plastic linear bearings enable equipment manufacturers to produce machines with even lower bearing TCO.