Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Norio Yasuoka

Akira Yamakawa

Masaya Miyake

Osamu Komura

Kenji Matsunuma

Matsuo Higuchi

Tetsuya Katayama

Kaoru Murabe

Chihiro Kawai

Makoto Yamashita

Toshio Kometani

Hiroyuki Konaka

Akio Konda

Shigeru Kato

A slide member has a sliding surface made of ceramic and a has surface roughness of not more than 1.0 .mu.m in center line average roughness Ra. The ceramics includes a silicon nitride sintered body which contains crystal grains having a linear density of at least 35 per 30 .mu.m in length with a boundary phase volume ratio of not more than 15 volume %, and which contains pores of not more than 20 .mu.m in maximum diameter in a content of not more than 3%. In a method of manufacturing the slide member, it is possible to ensure smoothness of the sliding surface by grinding the sliding surface and thereafter heating the ceramic in an either an inert gas or atmospheric air. A slide member that can be used under severe sliding conditions of high-speed sliding or the like and that has excellent wear resistance is obtained. Even if the slide member is used for to a sliding part of a compressor or the like which employs a fluorocarbon containing no chlorine as a cooling medium, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of seizure and abnormal wear on the sliding surface.

Slide member and method of manufacturing the same

Composite bearing structure

There is provided a method and apparatus of detecting minute impurities in the entire body of a fluid. Part of the passage through which the fluid flows is constituted by a transparent member. Light is emitted in a direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of this part of the fluid passage so as to envelop the same. Light scattered by impurities in the fluid is observed from a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of the passage to detect any minute impurities in the fluid. The method and apparatus is well-suited for use in systems which extrude molten resin in the formation of plastic products used in an electrical environment in order to detect impurities in the resin which could adversely affect the performance of the products.

Method and apparatus of detecting impurities in fluid

A composite bearing structure can withstand high speed rotation has first, second and third bearing components. The first bearing component supports a radial impact force applied to a rotator during rotation, and is made of an inner ring (1) and an outer ring (2) of silicon nitride ceramic sintered bodies. The second bearing component supports an axial load applied to the rotator while maintaining a required clearance between itself and the rotator and is made of two permanent magnets (12, 13) positioned thrustdirectionally opposite to each other. The third bearing component maintains a radial rotational accuracy of the rotator, and is made of a radial dynamic pressure producing groove (5) provided on a cylindrical surface of the inner ring (1).

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Itami, Japan

Norio Yasuoka