Electric water pumps which are driven by motors with control options are becoming popular because of their advantage in various cooling applications such as automobiles, medical equipment and semiconductor devices where efficient cooling and high reliability are required. A preferred configuration from reliability perspective for such pumps is a can-sealed type. In this configuration, bearings which support motor rotors are immersed in circulated fluids in the pumps. Ceramic journal bearings are well known for their utilization of water-based fluids as lubrication agents and are reported with applications in which the ceramic bearings are successfully used. [1] However, bearing design combining ceramics with ceramics or with tungsten carbide (WC) contact would cause higher costs thus might not be acceptable for a wide range of applications.
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