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Development of the Industry's First "IC Tag Integrated Bearing"

7/26/2011

[Allows electronic data to be saved within the bearing itself!]

NTN Corporation (hereafter, NTN) has developed an "IC Tag Integrated Bearing", which allows electronic data on the bearing's quality and usage record to be saved directly within the bearing itself.

Bearings are essential components that need to be examined carefully during regular repairs inspections, and to this end, information such as inspection dates and operating time are saved and managed. Issues faced with bearings that have been used for a long period of time, include the loss of data on repeated inspections and complicated management procedures. To overcome these issues, there has been an increase in the use of IC tags (RFID: Radio Frequency Identification), however various problems plagued further adoption of the system, including the fact that IC tags cannot physically be read and written when mounted within metallic components, and their actual size.

NTN has now developed an IC tag integrated bearing, which allows electronic data to be saved directly within the bearing itself. Information on IC tags mounted within the bearing can be read and written using a dedicated reader/writer unit. The dimension of bearing remains unchanged as the IC tag is mounted within the bearing.

The type of information saved on IC tags can be configured for each user, and the newly developed tag allows reference of bearing quality information, as well as inspection records.

NTN plans to market the IC tag integrated bearing for equipment that needs regular inspections to be conducted over a long period of time and that require the ultimate in reliability, such as construction machinery and mining equipment, aircraft, railway vehicle and wind power generation. This new product will make bearing management easier, and improve the reliability of bearing information.

[ Features ]

(1) Allows reference of bearing quality information to be read directly from the bearing

- This allows bearing quality information to be read (For example, bore diameter, outer diameter, width precision, internal clearance and serial No.).

(2) Users can save usage record of actual applications directly on to the bearing, and read the data later

- Inspection data can be saved directly on to the bearing.

(3) Type of information saved on IC tag can be configured variously

- Type of information can be configured to satisfy user requirements. (Example of information saved on IC tag)

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