The Bearing That Passed the Aerospace Industry's Most Demanding Qualification Test

A Standard That Very Few Bearings Ever Achieve

In the aerospace industry, bearing qualification standards serve as some of the toughest engineering benchmarks to meet. Among the most demanding is SAE AS81819, a qualification protocol that exposes bearings to extreme conditions involving water, hydraulic fluid, turbine fuel, lubricating oil, antifreeze, and solid contaminants such as dust. RBC Bearings' KAHR-LON® K-HELO-1C system is, to date, the only self-lubricating liner qualified to this standard. It successfully completed more than 600 hours of dynamic laboratory testing and incorporates RBC's proprietary Kahrbonite® ceramic coating, enabling it to withstand extreme pressures, temperatures, and operating speeds. This bearing technology is used in pitch links, dampers, lead-lag joints, and scissor bearings on military helicopters, as well as in the main swashplate, landing gear, and flight control systems. Its woven-fiber construction combined with phenolic resins creates a bearing capable of resisting both compressive and shear loads while remaining highly resistant to contamination. Successfully meeting such a rigorous qualification standard demonstrates just how far precision engineering must go when the safety of an aircraft depends on the reliability of a single bearing.