Wheel bearing technology and development direction

1. High performance sealing ring

Because the wheel hub bearings are quite close to the ground and high-temperature brake discs and other parts, they must be integrated into a variety of complex real-time road conditions and relatively harsh natural driving environments. Therefore, the bearing sealing ring must have excellent grease leakage resistance, and at the same time, it must have excellent heat resistance, mud and sewage resistance.

2. Shaking technology

Most of the third-generation wheel hub bearings choose the self-locking semi-inner ring with rocking technology. When the rocking technology is selected, the axial load causes plastic deformation of the main shaft end of the hub, which can promote the connection of the hub main shaft and the semi-inner ring as a whole. Compared with traditional nut fastening, the third-generation hub bearing with rolling technology is beneficial to reduce the volume and weight, at the same time, it can reduce the cost and continuously improve the reliability of the hub bearing. At the same time, the specific steps of adjusting the position of internal parts are eliminated when assembling into the car.

Lightweight and miniaturized

The 2nd and 3rd generation wheel bearing product structure design requires finite element analysis to ensure that the flange is sufficiently rigid while minimizing its volume and weight. Among them, the rigidity of the 3rd generation wheel bearing That is, the inclination angle of the hub flange compared to the outer ring flange. Through the integration and miniaturization design to reduce the weight of the axle, the second-generation hub bearing is 180g less than the first-generation, and the third-generation hub bearing further reduces the weight by 120g

3. Low friction torque

An important method to reduce automobile fuel consumption is to design wheel bearings with low friction torque. The key factors affecting the friction torque of the bearing are the bearing type and preload load. The bearing seal accounts for a large proportion of the friction torque. Therefore, improving the seal design to reduce the friction torque can significantly improve the performance of the hub bearing. The wheel hub bearing has grown from the first generation to the latest generation 4, and the friction torque will obviously decrease day by day.

4. ABS technology

ABS is an automobile safety control device with benefits such as anti-skid and anti-locking. It detects the wheel speed during emergency braking to automatically adjust the braking force to prevent the wheels from locking up and shorten the braking distance. Rotation speed detection is carried out by magnetic sensors installed on the parts rotating with the wheels and fixed on the car body nearby.

There are two types of hub units with ABS sensors: one is placed inside the hub, and the sensor is installed on other parts; the other is placed inside the hub together with the sensor (called a sensor hub unit).