As the “heart” of the machinery industry, the technological level of bearings directly affects the competitiveness of a country’s equipment manufacturing industry. In recent years, the Chinese bearing industry has witnessed a series of breakthrough developments, transforming from a follower to a parallel player and even a leader.
As the “heart” of the machinery industry, the technological level of bearings directly affects the competitiveness of a country’s equipment manufacturing industry. In recent years, the Chinese bearing industry has witnessed a series of breakthrough developments, transforming from a follower to a parallel player and even a leader.
01 Breakthrough in Ultra Large Bearing Technology, Reshaping the Limits of Heavy Machinery Manufacturing
In August 2025, Huazhong Group successfully developed the world’s first 4000 ton super large bearing, with a diameter of over 4 meters and a load-bearing capacity of up to 4000 tons, equivalent to the installed capacity of 6.6 Three Gorges generator units.
The machining accuracy of this bearing reaches 0.001 millimeters, which is equivalent to 1/701 of the diameter of a human hair. Such astonishing precision control greatly improves the stability of precision equipment such as wind power and shield tunneling machines.
Through the innovative new cage and green heat treatment process, the service life of this bearing under extreme working conditions is three times longer than traditional products, and the maintenance cost is reduced by 50%.
02 Precision manufacturing and intelligent production, digital transformation in progress
Luozhou Group has built the first large-scale intelligent production line for bearings in China – the “Black Light” Factory 3 for wind turbine gearbox bearings, which will be put into operation in October 2024. The processing island and CNC lathe here are neat and orderly, with intelligent robots performing precise operations and real-time display of various parameters.
Yang Fuyun, a senior engineer born in the 1980s, and her team faced the market demand for large bearings with multiple models and small batches. Through gradual polishing and shaping, they built a flexible production line: “Every tool and every grinding wheel on the lathe is verified by us step by step, without precedent
Starting from 2020, Luozhou Group has invested over 2 billion yuan in 5 years to carry out large-scale equipment updates and intelligent transformation, with the goal of completing all digital transformation by 2030.
03 Material Science Innovation, Solving Extreme Working Condition Application Problems
The project “Application of High Purity and High Uniformity Preparation Technology for High Temperature Bearing Steel in Aviation” participated by Shanghai Bearing Technology Research Institute won the second prize of Shanghai Technical Invention Award in 2024.
This project originates from the national equipment development requirements. In order to ensure the technical performance and development needs of a certain type of aircraft, the project team has broken through the forward design technology and simulation design optimization technology of high-temperature bearings.
They innovatively proposed a high-purity and high uniformity preparation technology route, which significantly improved the consistency and stability of material properties by optimizing process equipment and testing instrument selection.
04 Surface treatment technology to improve bearing life and reliability
In August 2025, the launch meeting of the “Key Technology Research and Application Demonstration of Laser Surface Strengthening for Large Wind Power Bearings” project was held in Shanghai.
The project aims to break through the key technologies of ultra wide, deep, low deformation, and no soft band laser surface strengthening, and construct a transient evolution model for laser-induced metal surface heat transfer and solid-state phase transition.
The project goal is to master the mechanism and process method of generating the target shape state of large-scale wind turbine bearing raceway laser quenching, and establish the process standards and technical system for laser surface strengthening of wind turbine bearings.
05 Responding to industrial changes, bearing technology adapts to the needs of the new era
The electrification of automobiles has put forward new requirements for bearing technology. The speed of an electric motor is usually much higher than that of a traditional engine, with a maximum speed ratio of up to 3 times or more.
To cope with the challenge of high-speed rotation, the manufacturer has developed a two-piece cage that combines two resin parts to form a structure that suppresses deformation, ensuring a dmn value of 2 × 10 ⁶ mm · r/min9.
Faced with the problem of electric corrosion caused by the imbalance of magnetic flux inside the motor, the manufacturer has developed bearings with resin coating on the outer ring and ceramic balls, as well as low-cost special coating insulated bearings.
06 Extreme environmental applications, super bearings challenge physical boundaries
In the rocket liquid hydrogen pump system, the bearings must operate stably in an environment close to absolute zero. Engineers choose high nickel alloys or titanium based materials, combined with fluorinated ether low-temperature lubricants, and even use self-lubricating composite materials.
In a continuous high temperature environment above 800 ℃, high-temperature materials such as M50 nickel chromium molybdenum alloy are used, and special carburizing and tempering treatments are carried out to make the bearing have excellent thermal stability and creep resistance.
In the space vacuum environment, aerospace grade bearings use low release materials, suppress cold welding phenomena through surface silver plating or ceramic coatings, and use long-life solid lubrication or ionic liquid lubrication technology7.
07 Lightweight and precision improvement to meet the needs of emerging industries
In 2025, the unidirectional bearing industry is showing a trend of increasing demand for lightweight and high-precision. The manufacturer uses high-strength aluminum alloy casing to reduce weight by 8 while ensuring load-bearing capacity.
Develop special engineering plastic retaining frames that can reduce weight by up to 30% compared to traditional metal materials, and even test the potential application of carbon fiber composite materials in bearing components.
Through computer-aided design and finite element analysis techniques, engineers continuously optimize the product structure, improve the cage structure, and reduce weight by 8 while ensuring strength.
Chinese bearing companies are no longer satisfied with the label of “assembly plant”, but aim to establish “Chinese standards” in the high-end manufacturing field.
The iteration speed of three new products every day has made Western counterparts exclaim that they “can’t understand” – China completed their 30-year journey in three years, not by luck, but by the coordination of the national system, the outbreak of engineer spirit, and the determination to upgrade the industry.
From following to leading, the technological progress of China’s bearing industry is reshaping the global industrial landscape and injecting new impetus into the development of the world’s industry.
