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Bearing the Weight
| Article
# : |
14438 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1988 |
2,734 Words |
| Author
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Michael Woods
Michael Woods, a contributing editor for THE WORLD & I, has
received numerous science-writing awards. |
Our modern world of ever-higher technology remains surprisingly dependent on technology in one of its oldest and least-appreciated forms: the humble bearing. Widely known as familiar steel ball bearings, bearings come in other materials such as nonferrous metals, plastic, and ceramics, and in configurations such as journal or magnetic bearings.
For at least 5,000 years, bearings have been essential components in all kinds of mechanized equipment, supporting and guiding moving parts while reducing friction and wear. Bearings are so pervasive, so indispensable, that their elimination would bring virtually all industrial activity and mechanized transportation to a screeching halt.
Despite their reputation as technological throwbacks to the nineteenth century, bearings are the epitome of high technology in both their applications and manufacture.
Consider, for example, the sophisticated Winchester disc drive mechanisms that have increased data storage capacity and decreased access time in computers. Bits of data are magnetically imprinted and retrieved from individual "tracks" packed impossibly close together on the disc. Current-generation hard discs have 1,125 tracks on each inch of disc space, and drives of the future are expected to have more than 2,000 per inch. Such capacity is possible because of high-precision bearings that eliminate unwanted wobble in the drive mechanism. Extraneous movement would scramble data, causing read/write errors.
High-tech bearings in satellites and spacecraft permit the reliable operation of pointing mechanisms for cameras, solar panels, and antennas--even after years in the hostile environment of space. The turbines on jet engines rotate on bearings, as do the gyroscopes of jetliner, missile, and other navigation systems. They are absolutely essential for all wheeled and motorized vehicles. In fact, the wheel probably would have been a technological dead end were it not for inexpensive, reliable bearings that allow wheels to rotate without quickly wearing down the axle. The arms of industrial robots, children's toys, household appliance motors, and automated instruments in clinical and medical research laboratories all operate because of bearings.
Even modern water-cooled dental drills--which make repair of a cavity a quick and almost painless process--depend on tiny bearings that rotate at incomprehensible
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