In recent years, the need for improved automotive fuel efficiency has grown due to social factors such as decarbonization and soaring fuel costs. Hub unit bearings are components that support the vehicle body and enable wheels to rotate smoothly; reducing their friction is expected to improve fuel economy. Furthermore, because they are installed near the tires, they are exposed to harsh environments—such as being splashed with muddy water during driving—requiring high resistance to muddy water. By developing new seal technologies that balance low friction with resistance to muddy water, NSK has achieved a significant friction reduction of 40% compared to conventional products.
Hub unit bearings support the vehicle body and facilitate smooth wheel rotation. To prevent the ingress of muddy water, seals are installed on both the inboard and outboard sides (Fig.1).
Three new seal technologies were developed to achieve both low friction and muddy water resistance.
By leveraging NSK's tribology and analysis technologies, an optimal seal shape was created to reduce friction while maintaining muddy water resistance. Friction Reduction: Number of lips: Reduced the number of contact lips from three to one. Lip tip bending: Curving the lip tip reduces the contact width between the lip and the slinger. Improved Muddy Water Resistance: Slinger shape: Using NSK's analysis technology, a U-shaped slinger with high drainage performance was developed.
Friction reduction was achieved by utilizing NSK's tribology expertise to lower the base oil viscosity of the seal grease. To maintain muddy water resistance, a polymer was added as a reinforcing agent to keep the grease oil film at an appropriate thickness .
Laser processing was adopted for the manufacturing method of the seal sliding surface, making the most of NSK's tribology expertise. By reducing the surface irregularities (texture) of the sliding surface, further friction reduction was realized.
The developed product delivers a 40% reduction in friction compared to conventional products. Vehicles using this new product can expect an improvement in fuel efficiency of approximately 0.5%. For electric vehicles (EVs), the cruising range per charge is extended by approximately 4 kilometers. *Based on NSK internal calculations.
More about VAFEM:
VAFEM is devoted to providing high quality ball & roller bearings and related transmission parts for domestic and foreign customers in the Vehicle industry and Industries. Our products used in automotive and truck industry mainly include : wheel bearings, wheel bearing kits, wheel hub bearings, alternator bearings, tensioner bearings, clutch bearings, and gear box bearings etc. Our industrial bearings are mainly used in these fields such as Industrial Automation, Home Appliances, Reducers, Agricultural Machines, Precision Machine Spindles, and Transmission Systems etc. As a high-tech company specializing in bearings, we can not only provide stable and trustworthy quality products for OEM customers, but also provide non-standard bearings based on customers’ special requirements. At the same time, we can provide a series of complete product lines and have our own brand VAFEM, it stands for the abbreviation of value added for every movement, which has been recognized by more and more customers and end users.
2026 New Week VAFEM product Recommendation:
A linear-motion bearing or linear slide is a bearing designed to provide free motion in one direction. There are many different types of linear motion bearings. Motorized linear slides such as machine slides, X-Y tables, roller tables and some dovetail slides are bearings moved by drive mechanisms. Not all linear slides are motorized, and non-motorized dovetail slides, ball bearing slides and roller slides provide low-friction linear movement for equipment powered by inertia or by hand. All linear slides provide linear motion based on bearings, whether they are ball bearings, dovetail bearings, linear roller bearings, magnetic or fluid bearings. X-Y tables, linear stages, machine slides and other advanced slides use linear motion bearings to provide movement along both X and Y multiple axis.
As a precious high quality wheel hub bearings manufacturer and supplier in China, VAFEM can guarantee the quality and precision of the products through complete testing technology and advanced equipment. Please come to buy wheel hub bearings at the best price and quality from VAFEM. Please contact us for any questions!
2026-04-01