Products lined with NHBB’s Oscimax® brand of machineable self-lubricating liner technology.
Products lined with NHBB’s Oscimax® brand of machineable self-lubricating liner technology.

NHBB is pleased to announce it has successfully developed and brought to market a machineable self-lubricating liner system. The company has secured its first approval necessary to offer the technology to the global aerospace industry, and it has established manufacturing capabilities for the first of several planned production phases. The solution named Oscimax® is rapidly earning a reputation for superb performance among industry associations, government agencies, and key aerospace customers. Oscimax® also represents a significant expansion of NHBB’s value proposition, as it increases the company’s ability to solve customers’ bearing wear and life issues, particularly within complex bearing assemblies.

NHBB’s patent-pending solution is a homogeneous liquid formulation consisting of a proprietary matrix of thermosetting polymeric resins, PTFE, and various other compounds. NHBB can apply it to virtually any surface, including I.D.’s, O.D.’s, flanges, chamfers, and flat surfaces. Once applied, Oscimax® produces a consistent, secure bond to aluminum and steel while promoting higher dynamic loads and significantly reduced wear rates.

Oscimax® is an excellent option for situations where environmental conditions expose a bearing to moisture and where low torque and low friction is required. Such parameters are found in a broad range of aerospace applications, including engine controls, thrust reversers, wing surface controls, mechanical and fly-by-wire flight control systems, and VGV systems, to name a few.

NHBB’s machineable liner system offers several advantages over fabric-based self-lubricating liner systems: It is less susceptible to moisture gain; it performs more consistently through temperature changes; and because the liner is fully machineable, it can be manufactured to tighter tolerances. When it comes to the critical factor of wear resistance, Oscimax® tests better than any of NHBB’s fabric-based liners, plus it tests very well against other machineable self-lubricating liner solutions.

Oscimax® meets the two aerospace standards related to bushings, AS81934 (25,000 cycles) and AS81934 Type A (100,000 cycles).* NHBB is pursuing additional industry and customer specifications, including the aerospace industry’s standard for self-lubricating machineable liners for spherical bearings (AS81820/25,000 cycles) and Boeing’s specification for bushings and bearings (BMS3-39). NHBB expects to achieve the AS81820 approval by October of 2013. For Boeing’s BMS3-39 certification, NHBB is scheduled to begin qualification testing later this Summer and should finish by December of 2013.

The technology was developed through collaboration between the product engineering group at NHBB's Astro Division and NHBB's newly established New Product Development Center (NPDC). NHBB formed the NPDC earlier this year to fully support the emerging technology requirements of its aerospace customers. The center supports product development and testing throughout NHBB as well as the global Minebea group of companies.

Building on NHBB’s commitment to supporting the needs of its aerospace customers, Oscimax®, joins NHBB's broad offering of self-lubricating liner solutions for commercial and military aircraft and helicopters. As NHBB researchers continue their drive to increase bearing system life and performance, customers continue to benefit through improved performance and reduced maintenance and repair costs.

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*The version of Oscimax® qualified to AS81934 and AS81934 Type A is identified with the extension ‘XT.’

NHBB’s Oscimax® Machineable Self-Lubricating Liner System
Principal Use: Oscimax® is a machineable self-lubricating liner system for bushings, rod ends, spherical bearings, complex bearing assemblies, and machined parts utilized in a broad range of aerospace applications, such as engine controls, thrust reversers, wing surface controls, VGV systems, and mechanical and fly-by-wire flight control systems, to name a few.
Attributes: Compared to fabric-based liners, Oscimax® is less susceptible to moisture gain, and performs more consistently through temperature changes and, because the liner is fully machineable using conventional milling, turning, drilling, reaming, and honing techniques, it can be held to tighter tolerances.
Benefits: Benefits include reduced wear and increased life for bearing assemblies, which supports better performance and lower maintenance and repair costs for the customer.