China's Full Hydrodynamic Air Bearing Breaks International M

Publication Time：2025-12-17 16:07 [ From：Andge Bearing ] Author：Bearing Website

On November 28, 2025, the "Global First Full Hydrodynamic Air Bearing Industrialization Achievement Launch Conference" held in Beijing marked a milestone in China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry. Led by Beijing Pujian Research Institute, the team announced the successful mass production of full hydrodynamic air bearings, ending the long-term technological blockade by foreign countries and making China the fifth country in the world capable of mass-producing this "crown jewel of the bearing industry".

Hydrodynamic air bearings, characterized by non-contact operation, zero wear, high precision, and low noise, operate on the principle that a rotating shaft forms an air film to support mechanical components, fundamentally solving the wear, heat generation, and noise issues of traditional ball bearings. This technology is widely used in aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, supercomputing heat dissipation, and medical equipment—fields that have long been dominated by a handful of international giants.

The road to breakthrough was arduous. Beijing Pujian Research Institute spent 25 years tackling three core challenges: innovative structural design, core composite materials, and ultra-precision machining. The result is a product that outperforms many international competitors in key indicators. The self-developed ceramic matrix composite bearing sleeve solves the brittleness problem of foreign materials, increasing service life by 30%. The maximum rotational speed reaches 150,000 rpm, surpassing Mohawk Innovative Technology's 120,000 rpm and Bosch's 80,000 rpm. The failure-free service life stands at 60,000 hours, 20% longer than the 50,000 hours of international counterparts. It also operates in a wider temperature range of -60°C to 350°C, adapting to more extreme environments.

Before this breakthrough, the global hydrodynamic thin-film air bearing market was highly concentrated, with the top five companies controlling nearly 90% of the market in 2024. The U.S.' Mohawk dominated aerospace and semiconductor equipment with over 100,000 annual shipments; Germany's Bosch held 60% of the automotive air bearing market with 1.2 billion euros in 2024 revenue; the U.K.'s ORVER specialized in micro-precision bearings for medical and aviation fields; and the U.S.' RMD Dynamics supplied military-grade bearings for F-35 fighter jets but was restricted from exporting to China.

China's industrialization achievement has already made an impact on both domestic and international markets. In the civilian sector, 100,000 sets of supercomputing heat dissipation modules were delivered to leading domestic computing power enterprises by the end of 2025, achieving import substitution. In high-end fields, aerospace and semiconductor equipment bearings have passed military and industry certifications, breaking RMD Dynamics' blockade, with mass military supply expected by 2027. Compared with imported products, China's civilian-grade bearings have a 40% lower production cost, offering significant cost advantages to downstream enterprises.

Industry experts point out that this breakthrough has strategic significance beyond the bearing industry itself. As an underlying core technology, it drives upgrades in multiple industries:

supercomputing heat dissipation modules enhance the performance of domestic computing equipment, while micro-blowers enable miniaturization of aerospace devices. Beijing Pujian plans to enter Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern markets in 2026, transforming technological advantages into international competitiveness. However, challenges remain—compared with Mohawk, there is a gap in long-term military application data, and compared with Bosch, scale cost control in the civilian market needs improvement.

【Andge Bearing】WuXi Andge Bearing Co.,Ltd. delivers reliable bearing solutions for industrial, automotive and mechanical applications.

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China's Full Hydrodynamic Air Bearing Breaks International M

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