Frelon is a polytetrafluoroethylene

Polytetrafluoroethylene

Polytetrafluoroethylene is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene that finds numerous applications. PTFE is most well known by the DuPont brand name Teflon....

 (PTFE) based material with other proprietary fillers to increase bearing

Bearing (mechanical)

A bearing is a device to allow constrained relative motion between two or more parts, typically rotation or linear movement. Bearings may be classified broadly according to the motions they allow and according to their principle of operation as well as by the directions of applied loads they can...

 characteristics, such as low wear

Wear

In materials science, wear is erosion or sideways displacement of material from its "derivative" and original position on a solid surface performed by the action of another surface....

, low friction

Friction

Friction is the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and/or material elements sliding against each other. There are several types of friction:...

, and high strength

Strength of materials

In materials science, the strength of a material is its ability to withstand an applied stress without failure. The applied stress may be tensile, compressive, or shear. Strength of materials is a subject which deals with loads, deformations and the forces acting on a material. A load applied to a...

. It is chemically inert and self lubricating. It qualifies as a class III plain bearing. The load capacity is four to eight times that of a ball bearing

Ball bearing

A ball bearing is a type of rolling-element bearing that uses balls to maintain the separation between the bearing races.The purpose of a ball bearing is to reduce rotational friction and support radial and axial loads. It achieves this by using at least two races to contain the balls and transmit...

; for instance, a 0.5 in (1.3 cm) Frelon bearing can support the same load as a 1 in (2.5 cm) ball bearing.

Characteristics

Frelon creates a self-lubricating bearing surface

Bearing surface

A bearing surface is a mechanical engineering term that refers to the area of contact between two objects. It usually is used in reference to bolted joints and bearings, but can be applied to a wide variety of engineering applications....

 by transferring some of the soft PTFE to the shafting during the run-in process. It is almost universally chemically inert; the only materials that attack it are molten sodium

Sodium

Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals; its only stable isotope is 23Na. It is an abundant element that exists in numerous minerals, most commonly as sodium chloride...

 and fluorine

Fluorine

Fluorine is the chemical element with atomic number 9, represented by the symbol F. It is the lightest element of the halogen column of the periodic table and has a single stable isotope, fluorine-19. At standard pressure and temperature, fluorine is a pale yellow gas composed of diatomic...

 at elevated temperatures.

It has a plain bearing pressure rating (P) of 1500 psi (10.3 MPa); dry velocity rating (V) of 140 surface feet per minute (sfm) (0.71 m/s); and a PV rating of 10,000 psi sfm (0.35 MPa m/s).

Additional lubrication can reduce friction and wear by 50%.