How Computer Fan Bearings Are Made: Ball Bearings & Fluid Dynamic Bearings

this Factory sounds like a coin operated arcade and all of these massive buildings filled with massive machines make this a bearing we've seen how computer fans get made in the [Music] past but we've never seen how the parts of those fans are made this highly specialized factory makes a part that's commonly faked in case fan marketing high-end fluid Dynamic bearing they wanted to show us how the real ones are made since so many companies claim to use fdbs but when you tear the fans apart they just use sleeve bearings this factory makes millions of fdbs and Vol varians per year and they're a major supplier for quality variants and computer case fans we went all the way up the supply chain this time for this special look behind the scenes of how parts are made this Taiwan based factory makes fluid Dynamic bearings for lean Le's most expensive case fan the factory is owned by TPI bearings which makes Not only fan bearings but also angular contact ball bearings for Machine Tools deep Groove ball bearings for General use fluid Dynamic variants for servos and robotic arms TD strain wve drives and joints and even bearings for Gigantic construction Machinery in fact the largest bearing in this Lobby was the size of an entire Cas fan about 120 mm in this special addition to our latest factory tour season we'll see how ball bearings and fluid Dynamic bearings get cleaned of debris and greased for use and how they're optically scanned and carried away on automated conveyor belts we'll show how they're ground and prepped and we'll get an educational opportunity to learn about the differences between these two types of bearings the last part of the tour will f focus on fdbs specifically which are one of the most expensive parts for PC case fans let's get started with this educational Deep dive into case fan bearings before that this video is brought to you by the Deep cool AK 620 digital air cooler we previously reviewed the Baseline AK 620 as a strong performer and extremely price competitive now the new digital variant includes a screen with a display for some extra flare including CPU temperature and high temperature warnings on the display if you like the AK 620's Performance but wanted more visual pop without going liquid consider the AK 620 digital at the link in the description below this is the factory it's Isles upon aisles of equipment with conveyor belts running all the way up to the ceiling and around the facility we'll start with the life cycle of an angular contact ball bearing first an explainer angular contact ball bearings or commonly shortened to just ball bearings typically use steel balls ceramic balls or a mix of carbon and chromium to roll between an inner and outer Raceway or rings High Precision rolling elements need to be manufactured Define tolerances to ensure precision and stability of rotation especially at high speeds and Heat and the baring has to be packed with grease to encourage low friction rotation there are many types of grease for use in different applications ranging from high heat Automotive to relatively low heat spindles the inner race has a groove or sometimes a special deep Groove in which the balls roll a cage or retainer is used to separate the balls and keep rotation smooth the cage has a big impact on noise emissions as well to prevent lubricant from leaking most ball bearan also use Shields or seals of rubber and they also double as protection against contaminants ballaran typically develop fatigue within the Raceway or rolling element with age commonly the rated L10 lifespan or the minimum lifespan of 90% of the bearings is 50,000 hours depends on the application common pros of a ball variant include cost efficacy versatility and strength and high-speed applications they're also low maintenance with shielding and relatively easy to maintain when necessary common cons are limited load capacity where the rolling element can deform under weight noise levels at high speed and particularly when the grease dries Heat at speed and sensitivity to contaminants now that we have some Basics let's go to the [Music] factory we're starting with the ball bearing part of the factory each angular contact ball bearing line is manned by just one person and it's capable of producing 100,000 complete ball bearan assemblies per month the factory is equipped with multiple of these lines spanning several floors the line starts with an exciting bright red beam that looks almost molten this Optical inspection machine is the first step in the process it gets fed from a hopper that contains a supply of inner and outer Rings or raceways they're not assembled yet this automated process carefully scans for diameter done by using an arm that shoots down to hold the component in place while a laser scanner analyzes the size tolerance can be tuned for the customer but these barans are inspected to a tolerance of 30 microns any defects are sorted aside for manual inspection see if they're salvageable and if not the metal is sold to metal recyclers the defect rate of step one in this process is 1 in 1,000 units or 0.1% as bearings pass they're pushed with a robotic arm onto the oil covered slipway that brings them to a mechanical counter which simply ticks up for each new part and then they progress down the slide into a tiny lift for bearings this goes up to a track that leads to the second stop in this line the grinding machine looking at the grinding machine in action through this protective glass it does exactly what the name suggests the machine grinds down the Rings to begin smoothing them out for their future low friction application this process takes 10 seconds for each of the smaller products and 30 to 40 for the larger one one unique challenge of the grinding process is that it magnetizes the parts so the components run through a demagnetizer before proceeding like clockwork each rain follows these steps dumping oil with each one spit out the oil gets recaptured in a pan under the machine filtered and then reused later the apex of the line runs through an oil bath which helps rid the race of any debris from the grinding process and then Rel lubricates it then just like before they progress over to another vertical lift and travel up and over to the next machine that's where we get to the most important part of this process polishing the polishing process follows the grinding and oil bath getting a perfect finish to the surface after polishing some bearings are spot checked at a manual inspection station this involves tools like a magnifying glass and measurement gauges or calipers to measure the surface smoothness the diameter and the finish and as they progress once again the bearings end up back in the lift and they're brought up to the ceiling over to the next room through another 10-second oil bath in a box and then to the Ultrasonic Cleaner here the smaller rains are held in place for about 8 Seconds at a time and then Advanced on the track while the larger ones take longer these ultrasonic cleaners use cavitation bubbles from highfrequency sound waves to help dislodge debris and dust when the bubbles pop debris is removed and swept away by oil TPI says that dust is the number one cause of failure for bearings which is why they have so many cleaning steps at every stage in the pipeline oil is regularly changed at this stage and it's sent through filters like these which help trap contaminants at multiple filtering stages to to reduce the use of new oil in the background of the Ultrasonic Cleaner in the filter you can already see the next machine working and it's completely custom built for this [Music] job this machine is one of the most mechanically active its job is to match the most suitable inner and outer race to each other other due to the 30 Micron tolerances previously the over under of the inner and outer rains means that they can't just be combined at random to have a highquality ball bearing instead as each rain enters the machine fresh from the Ultrasonic Cleaner the robotic arm moves in extends down and expands a physical gauge acting as calipers to measure the inner and outer diameters then the central robotic arm picks up the rain and either places it in the middle acting as a holding area until a perfect matches found or places it to the side nearest the exit and that's with its match like a Matchmaker the armor creates a memory and knows the tolerance of each individual rain it picks up it then tracks its location and memory until the perfect match is discovered this reduces defects eliminates guess work and increases Precision for the parts being made today the inner to Outer range of mating tolerance is 13 to 29 microns so they have a 16 Micron Gap within that original plus or minus 30 imagine getting swiped left on because you were 31 microns the on height it's a very judgmental robot if any bad raceways are found at this stage they're set aside in a different holding area to be reclaimed or recycled the paired inner and outer Rings next exit the machine and have the steel balls placed roughly between them however the balls can't fit within the inner and outer ring yet due to the tolerences so they sit only partially lowered into their final location with the seal applied the unit progresses to a heating coil where it Heats all the components up enough to loosen and expand the rins which allows the rolling elements to fall into place within the complete ballbearing unit the Varian only needs to sit within the coil for 4 to 5 Seconds as it gets blasted with heat making this one of the most efficient parts of the process watching this machine work is impressive and now for the final steps of the ball bearing manufacturing process starting with photography here the assembled angular contact bearing proceeds to a dark chamber for some quick flash photography this serves as another Optical inspection step where the machine is checking the photo for accurate placement of all components it also saves the image and presents it on the screen for human quality control operators to inspect as the bearings exit a series of Pistons work to punch the bearings over to the correct track depending on whether it passed or failed aoi and then they get queued and punched into the next conveyor belt failure rate for completed units at this stage is under 0.1% and the factory was able to achieve this by building its matchmaking robot that we saw earlier this also helped them lower cost to customers by producing with higher yield they follow this belt to another D magnetizer which holds each bearing assembly temporarily to ensure it isn't magnetic then an intense oil bath and ultrasonic cleaning stage ensues once more to ensure the baring is prepped for the final stages after this there are eight more stages of washing for the bearings this time progressing through a completely custommade machine for the job you can see the bearings get moved one stage to the next by these black clamps each stage involves a spraying head that lowers down over the assembly which blasts it with high pressure to fully clean out the channels these tools then rotate the bearing assembly during the process to make sure it's fully clean the nozzle then raises the bearing is is grabbed physically moved to the next nozzle and blasted again it happens eight total times until it's ejected back onto a lift where they progress up and over into the next machine there's one last intermediary Optical check and then the bearings are dropped as if into a slot machine down this ramp like the world's lowest friction Plinko machine this complex set of Robotics performs a few steps first it checks the D Dieter once more and logs it then it performs a wash to remove some of the excess oil from earlier then it applies a special anti-corrosion formula a lot of this not visible externally and finally it fills the bearing with grease and packs it together the process is quick at only a few seconds per bearing assembly after all these steps you can see the trays upon trays of bearings as they're sorted by size and type and that shows the entire process of how the angular contact ball bearings are made it's a lot of cleaning conveyor belts and Optical inspection with critical steps for grinding and polishing but now it's time to move on to the next [Music] stage next up testing we walked across the factory grounds and proceeded to the secure room where tpi's Engineers do R&D and testing of their products in this room you'll see fans and Peach dishes with bearings and oil everywhere often accompanied by a pixel art smiling thermometer indicating humidity and temperature and suffering there are various types of environmental and thermal Chambers here where TPI lets racks of new fans and exposed bearings sit in programmed conditions this allows them to test for the impact of humidity and heat for longevity and endurance testing here newly engineered fluid Dynamic bearings are being sent through a drying oven at 120° C but the company plannings moveed to 200 de in the future unfortunately for these bearings their entire existence is to feel pain they get made and then they get tested until failure some of the endurance testing includes observing and occasionally sampling the oil and trays for chemical changes due to prolonged exposure to simulated elements this is to double check that the oil's characteristics such as viscosity and dry out endurance are the same as in the cfd simulations fdbs often use two different kinds of oil at different dens ities so each of these is tested here but in addition to product endurance testing which is mostly done with rapid Heating and Cooling to simulate age at a faster rate they also do real time R&D testing one of these ovens is used for research and it'll be testing at 60° C for 100,000 hours it's been running nearly continuously for years now and it hasn't had a failure yet although this can be simulated to keep things practical and it is they still maintain some real time ovens to check those simulations even if it'll take a decade for completed products typically if anything fails it'll be the electronics the motor or the circuit board if a fluid Dynamic bearing fails it's norly from oil leakage or dry out now to get into FDB R&D and Manufacturing first some more Basics fluid Dynamic bearings are non contct bearings that are typically quieter and steadier in operation as a result of their use of fluid these get their name from the fluid in which the shaft rests which as it spins pressurizes the fluid fdbs are made of a few key compon components the shaft or the rotor which is connected to the motor spindle and the FDB inner surface is one of the key areas that gets design TPI machines its fdbs with a V groove which is shaped just like it sounds there's also the stator surrounding the shaft commonly made of aluminum brass or bronze or stainless steel the fluid itself supports the load and during rotation forms a thin film between the shaft and the bearing housing grooves help to distribute this film evenly and at as low an RPS M as possible finally a return circulates the fluid and helps with heat dissipation this room helps illustrate the components the benchtop power supply laptop and test platform are configured for testing the voltage of the bearing to the fan shaft as a demonstration we see the voltage drop when the rotation stops or slows which is due to friction or contact between the FTB and the shaft especially in the resting state by using voltage this lab can evaluate the oil pressure within the FDB during operation but without disturbing it this R&D lab is trying to determine how the bearing behaves internally at different speeds and so using these instruments gives it an inside look while preserving the Integrity of the bearing now it's the last leg of the tour manufacturing of fdbs while walking over to the FTB Factory we get a large reminder of just how many things have bearings these spinning mini wind turbines are dotted around the campus and for good reason it's windy here TPI makes the large bearings found in these power generating wind towers that help generate power for use within the campus these also serve as R&D for TPI as it can observe the longevity of its bearings on site and now we're entering the FTV Factory most of the steps are familiar to what we saw with ball variants which is why we went over them first there's really only one key difference and that's processing the metal and also filling it with fluid where they take a supply of metal rods and cut them down to Sid we asked our community for some information on this machine since it was Lost in Translation and viewer calino bear wrote this quote that's a bar feeder probably for a Swiss type lathe or screw machine to make the bearings it feeds bar stock into the lathes cullet Chuck while the truck is unclamped usually with some kind of pneumatic cylinder into a stop in the machine the lathe re clamps and then it can make a new part from this fed in material it allows the machine to run almost completely unsupervised making thousands of Parts a day and thanks to viewer Mr bear for that one as the rod gets fed into the machine it's chopped to size and spit out into a collection bucket this eventually forms the housing that you can see in our completed FDB as we were allowed to take home as souvenirs the rest of the FDB manufacturing steps are similar to the ballbearing steps there's a lot of cleaning and conveyor in and the secrecy around the fluid aspect meant we couldn't film that machine after the bearings are completely manufactured they go through desktop ultrasonic cleaners to remove debris once more and then they get packaged in plastic and Visually inspected this room also serves as QC where they take random samples and cut them in half to inspect the grooves and that completes the bearing Factory this has been an incredibly educational journey into learning not just about how bearings are made but how they work when different kinds are used this has been our fourth weekly installment in our newest season of factory tours last week we visited an engineering lab to learn about custom circuit board design for specialized tasks before that we visited a ram manufacturing and bidding facility and before that one a server and case manufacturing plant to kick this all off next week we're taking a brief break from this series and then we'll come back with a couple more episodes to close out the season subscribe to catch more of our educational factory tour series and let us know what kinds of factories you want to see next to support us and this educational series go to store. Gamers access.net and grab one of our brand new disappointment build 2023 shirts we only made one run of these and we're already more than halfway through we don't plan to restock them so visit the store to pick one up today and support our series thanks for watching we'll see you all next time

Channel: Gamers Nexus

Views: 167,508

Keywords: gamersnexus, gamers nexus, computer hardware, factory tours, how bearings are made, bearings explained, ball bearings explained, ball bearings vs fluid dynamic bearings, fdb vs ball bearing, double ball bearing vs fdb, best type of bearing, best computer fan bearing, pc fan bearings, case fan bearings

Id: HUtEzjrF-To

Length: 19min 39sec (1179 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 13 2024