Getting down to the details in aircraft cabin design
When engineers consider the importance of customized bearing solutions in aerospace applications, it’s typically in high-stakes applications directly related to vital aircraft functions. Bearings used in the aircraft’s passenger cabin, on the other hand, may seem like a cost-cutting opportunity with a simple, pre-determined bearing design.
In reality, this type of thinking can be costly. Saving a few cents on bearings may actually increase the housing design costs, resulting in a higher cost of production overall and making components less flexible for change as customer expectations change. For example: A 3 cent savings on the bearing itself may require an overspend of 20-30 cents on other components in the system. In this case, a project estimating to use 80,000 bearings annually would end up costing a manufacturer over $24,000 a year.
In addition to increased costs, ineffective surface movement in cabin components is likely to reduce end user wellbeing during the flight. With seat comfort being the worst rated aspect of air travel, airlines are on the lookout for solutions to this problem to improve customer experience.
By partnering with GGB early in the design process, customers gain the full benefits of our engineers’ expert knowledge of tribological solutions. We perform in-depth reviews of your seating application to ensure that not only the bearing specified, but also the other remaining components, are the most cost effective and reliable—even those far downstream.
