Development and mass production of the world’s first thrust ball bearing with a PPS cage for refrigerator compressors, achieving energy conservation in home appliances

　JTEKT Corporation has developed a thrust ball bearing with a PPS*1 cage for refrigerators which achieves even greater energy efficiency.
Conventionally, refrigerators used slide bearings in the compressor*2. However, achieving the use of rolling bearings in the compressor enables low torque and greatly contributes to improvements in compressor performance and better energy efficiency of the refrigerator.
JTEKT has succeeded in the first ever development and mass production of a bearing which, through utilization of PPS in the cage, resolves the engineering issue of resin oligomer*3 formation when using rolling bearings in refrigerator compressors.

1.Product Overview

Bearing size: φ18.7 × φ34.2 × t5.2
Uses PPS for the cage material
Mounted in compressors of household refrigerators

2.Details

Refrigerators are home appliances which run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and constitute a large portion of electricity expenses. Due to this, energy efficiency is a key focus of consumers when purchasing refrigerators.
To improve the energy efficiency of refrigerators, JTEKT has developed a thrust ball bearing with a PPS cage for application in refrigerator compressors, which up until now employed slide bearings.
Refrigerator compressors use compressor oil and a refrigerant. In conventional polyamide resins, cyclic oligomers form in the resin and caused defects, and therefore rolling bearings made with resin were not employed. JTEKT has adopted PPS as the cage material to eliminate this issue, achieving greater energy efficiency for refrigerators.

3.Sales plan

[Sales target] 100 million yen/Year
[Sales destination] All household appliance manufacturers

4.Manufacturing plant

UTSUNOMIYA KIKI CO., LTD. (JTEKT group company)

*1 Polyphenylene Sulfide, a type of synthetic resin.
*2 Component which compresses the refrigerant within the heat pump unit
     installed in refrigerators and air conditioners.
*3 Name for a polymer composed of two to several tens of molecules.