Bearings Without Grease & Retainers Eliminate Sliding Friction

There has been no significant innovation in the bearings design ever since Leonardo Da Vinci designed them about 5 centuries ago. Bearings are extremely important part of machines and have found applications in automobiles and electrical appliances as well. A Japanese company, that goes by the name of 'Coo Space' has developed innovative bearings that are greaseless and eliminate the sliding friction. Before I write further, check out this awesome video demonstration -


The traditional bearing design makes grease an essential component during operations. It's the sliding that occurs between the retainers (required to stop balls from sticking to each other) and the balls that makes the use of grease important. However, the Coo Space's design eliminates the retainers and hence the grease to make an impressive bearing.

The new design principle uses speeding up and slowing down of the balls using indentations in the outer ring. The separation created between the balls allows the overall friction to be reduced by a factor of 10. The result is very impressive, as demonstrated in the video.

Would love to have opinions from our fellow mechanical engineers. What do you think about the design. Can it be improved further?