A good fan, in addition to its large air volume and high wind pressure, is also very important for its reliability. Among them, the bearings used by the fan play a very important role. Generally, high-speed fans use ball bearings, while low-speed fans use cheaper self-lubricating bearings (sleeve bearings). Each fan requires two bearings. Some fans are marked "BS", which is a single ball bearing. BS means "1 ball 1 sleeve" and still contains self-lubricating bearings. More advanced than BS are double ball bearings, namely Two Balls. Various bearing forms will be explained below.

Oil-impregnated bearings (sleeve bearing)

Oil-impregnated bearings are sleeve bearings that use sliding friction. They use lubricating oil as a lubricant and drag reducer. They have low operating noise during initial use and are manufactured The cost is also low, but this kind of bearing wears seriously and its service life is far behind that of ball bearings. Moreover, when this kind of bearing is used for a long time, due to the oil seal (computer radiator products cannot use high-end oil seals, which are generally ordinary paper oil seals), the lubricating oil will gradually evaporate, and dust will also enter the bearing, causing the fan to Problems such as slower speed, increased noise, and in severe cases, severe vibrations caused by eccentricity of the fan due to bearing wear. If these phenomena occur, you must either open the oil seal and refuel, or you must eliminate and purchase a new fan.

Ball bearings

Oil bearings have a short service life and the oil control inside the bearing directly affects the noise during operation, so they are increasingly used by well-known manufacturers. Abandon. Double ball bearings are now widely favored by the industry and have become the first choice for high-quality radiator fans. Their operating stability is unparalleled, but the price is also higher. As a cost-effective option, the compromise solution of major manufacturers is to use single ball bearings.

Single ball bearings

Single ball bearings are an improvement on traditional oil-sealed bearings. Its rotor and stator are lubricated with balls and lubricating oil. It overcomes the problems of short service life and unstable operation of oil-sealed bearings, while the cost increase is extremely limited. Single ball bearings absorb the advantages of oil-sealed bearings and double ball bearings. The service life of the bearing has been increased to 40,000 hours. After adding balls, the operating noise has increased, but it is still less than that of double ball bearings.

Double ball bearings

Double ball bearings are relatively high-end bearings. There are several tiny steel balls in the bearing surrounding the axis. When the fan leaf or the axis rotates, the steel balls follow. Because they are all spheres, the friction is small and there is no problem of oil leakage. The advantage of the double ball fan is that it has a long service life, about 50,000 to 100,000 hours; it has good anti-aging performance and is suitable for fans with higher speeds. The disadvantages of double ball bearings are high manufacturing costs and the highest noise at the same speed level (because the friction points of the ball bearings increase by 2 times). Double ball air bearings and hydraulic bearings have better sealing properties, especially double ball bearings. The double ball bearings are completely embedded in the fan, and the rotating part has no direct contact with the outside world. In a sealed environment, the working environment of the bearing is relatively stable. Therefore, almost all large-diameter fans with a speed of 5,000 rpm use double ball bearings. The hydraulic bearing has a unique return oil circuit, so the possibility of lubricating oil leakage is smaller.

Rifle Bearing

The representative manufacturer of Rifle Bearing technology is CoolerMaster, and CM has upgraded most of its traditional oil-sealed bearing fans to Rifle Bearings. As an improvement on traditional oil-sealed bearings, Laifu bearings are made of high-oil-containing hollow bearings made of wear-resistant materials, which reduce the friction between the bearings and the shaft core. Laifu bearings also have a shaft core with reverse spiral grooves and oil retaining grooves. When the fan is running, the oil will form a reverse flow, thereby avoiding the loss of oil and thus extending the bearing life. By adopting the above structure and parts, Laifu bearing fans have greatly improved their oil-containing and oil-retaining capabilities and reduced noise.

HYPRO bearings

Hypro bearings are named after HY (Hydrodynamic wave, fluid dynamics wave) PRO (Oil protection system, oil protection system), which is a well-known design and manufacturer of radiators and fans. The patented product of the manufacturer ADDA is also made of many improvements on the basis of traditional oil-impregnated bearings. Hypro and hydraulic bearings can be said to have reached the same goal by different paths. Each of the two designs has adopted some unique improvement measures, but the essence is the same circulating oil system, and the performance in all aspects is basically the same. Usually the product life can reach more than 50,000 hours.

Hydraumatic Bearing

Hydraulic bearings are improved on the basis of oil seal bearings. Hydraulic bearings have a larger oil storage space than oil-sealed bearings and have a unique loop-back oil supply circuit. The working noise of the hydraulic bearing fan is significantly reduced, and the service life is also very long, which can reach 40,000 hours. But not all AVC radiators use hydraulic bearing fans. It can be seen that hydraulic bearings are still essentially oil-sealed bearings. However, this type of bearing has been improved, and its service life is much longer than that of ordinary oil-sealed bearings, and it inherits the advantages of oil-sealed bearings - low operating noise.

Nano bearing

Traditional oil-sealed bearing fans suffer serious wear during use and have low reliability when used for a long time. Nano-bearings effectively overcome this problem: Ceramic bearing technology uses nano-scale polymer materials and special additives to fully integrate them. The core of the bearing is fully made of nano-scale zirconia powder, which is made using die and sintering processes. The crystal particles are 60um in the past. It has dropped to 0.3um and is strong, smooth and wear-resistant. Nano-ceramic bearings (NCB) have strong high-temperature resistance and are not volatile, which greatly extends the service life of the fan. The properties of nano-ceramic bearings are similar to ceramics, and the more they are worn, the smoother they become. According to tests, the average service life of fans using nano ceramic bearings (NCB) is more than 150,000 hours.