Minebea Japan will launch ball bearings with an outer diameter of 1.5mm

Minebea will launch ball bearings with an outer diameter of 1.5mm. According to the company, the product is the 'world's smallest size' with a stamped-steel cage, the same as a normal small bearing. It is mainly used for medical equipment, micro motors, driving parts of micro equipment, etc. where the original ball bearings cannot be used. The inner diameter of this bearing is 0.50mm, and it is equipped with 6 balls with a diameter of 0.25mm. It supports high-speed rotation above 5000rpm and has a thickness of 0.65mm. The low-speed rotation type can be thinned down to 0.4mm. The company owns 60% of the global share of ball bearings with an outer diameter of 22mm or less. The smallest ball bearing outside diameter that has reached a practical level before is 2.2mm. This time, the same precision, durability, and rigidity as the original smallest product were maintained, while the outer diameter was reduced to 1.5mm.