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What Are Polymer Bearings?

Low-cost, high performance polymer bearings are the ideal alternative to sintered bronze or other metal bushings. Injection-molded from quality engineering thermoplastics, these bearings eliminate stick-slip and metal- on-metal contact––allowing smooth, accurate, low-friction linear, rotary or oscillating motion.

When to Use Polymer Bearings?

Popular applications for injection-molded bearings include those which demand low maintenance, long life and low cost. They are widely used by the automotive, medical, appliance, office machine, and marine industries to provide smooth, accurate, low friction linear, rotary or oscillating motion. In automotive specifically, typical applications include break and clutch pedal assemblies, printer carriages, hydraulic cylinders, gear motors, truck suspensions, and many more.

Polymer bearings are ideal where temperatures range up to 500°F, the application requires a thin wall or simple installation is required.

Straight Sleeve Polymer Bearings

Temperature Performance

Polymer bearings, such as Thomson Nyliner bearings, are ideal for use in extreme environments. For example, Thomson Nyliner standard bearings operate in temperatures from –40°F to 450°F, with 400°F recommended for continuous operation and alternative materials (One Plus) can withstand operating temperatures greater than 500°F.

Thin Wall Requirements

Polymer bearings can be designed for applications with space constraints and tight dimensional tolerances necessary for precise fits. For example, Thomson Nyliner bearings can be designed with very thin walls (.032˝ thick in many cases). This allows housing bore sizes that are only slightly larger than the shaft diameter. Thin wall construction is especially effective in preventing heat build-up which reduces the potential for bearing failure.

Easy Installation

When product assembly must be fast and simple, polymer bearings offer a good option to design engineers. In particular, Thomson Nyliner bearings are designed with compensation gaps that allow easy bearing installation in seconds, simply by squeezing the bearing and slipping it into its housing. When the bearing is released, hoop tension causes it to “hug” the housing bore prior to shaft installation.

Featured Solutions

Straight Sleeved Polymer Bearings

Thomson Nyliner offers four types of straight sleeve polymer bearings to provide high radial and static load capacity in limited spaces. They include standard polymer bearings, standard with lubrication groove, standard with carbon steel outer sleeve and standard with both lubrication groove and carbon steel outer sleeve.
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Straight Sleeve Polymer Bearings

Custom Molded Polymer Solutions

Custom molded polymer solutions are often superior to a generic alternative because they are engineered to the customer's exact needs and specifications. Learn more about Thomson Nyliner custom molding capabilities and polymer parts that are fabricated for customer's required applications.
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Custom Molded Polymer Solutions