Kolbenschmidt Pierburg AG

Permaglide^®

Products for Maximum Vehicle Comfort

The name Permaglide^®, a registered trademark of KS Gleitlager, embodies the product characteristic of a permanently, low-wear gliding. By applying a plastic material onto a metallic base alloy, a lowfriction matrix that unites favourable tribological properties with the load carrying properties and thermal conductivity of metals is obtained. The use of solid lubricants in the plastic matrix makes it possible to use Permaglide^® bearings in applications without oil- and grease lubrication.

Depending upon customer requirements and specific applications, a number of maintenance-free and lowmaintenance materials are available with identical microstructure. A porous bronze sinter structure applied to a steel or bronze back and is impregnated with the respective plastic mix. The solid lubricant produces a film between the sliding surfaces. It attributes to low-noise operation at constant speeds and low coefficients of friction throughout the entire service life of the component. This is achieved by means of a mixture of PTFE (Poly Tetra Fluoro Ethylene) with wear-retardant and thermally conductive additives.

It is not possible to find the desired solution for plain bearing applications with products made of maintenance-free materials for all duties and applications. For such duties and applications, low-maintenance materials are available. In this case, the sliding surface
taking up the wear load is formulated from a PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) matrix.

To reduce the coefficient of friction and improve thermal conductivity, special additives are mixed into the matrix. In addition, the surface of the sliding layer may optionally be equipped with lube bore relieves to accommodate grease or oil.

For Permaglide^®, bearings for extremely high performance requirements, KS Gleitlager has formulated and applied a PEEK (Polyether Ether Ketone) plastic matrix that is compounded with special nano-scaled fillers to improve its tribological properties.

Similar to engine bearings, increasing technical demands and minimized installation clearance determine the development efforts for Permaglide^® bearings. This is a strong turf of the KS Gleitlager’s technical specialists with their vast know how. In accordance with customer requirements, not only are the geometries and shapes selectively developed but are optimised as sliding surface systems where purpose-adjusted kinetic momentum of the sliding pairs are taken into account. Moreover, customers need not adapt design of their assemblies to the sliding element; the Permaglide^®-bearing optimally adjusts to the assembly design.