Bearing liner

To provide support for a rotatable shaft, a bearing ball is fixed to the shaft and rotatably mounted within a bearing race. A low friction liner which is disposed between the wearing surfaces of the ball and the race includes a backing, which can be adhered to the wearing surface of the bearing race, and a layer of low friction material, which can be disposed to contact the bearing and thereby provide permanent lubrication between the bearing and the race. The backing can be paper impregnated with chopped, compressed fibers such as wood or rice to provide the liner with a substantially linear stress-strain characteristic similar to that of metals. The paper backing reduces the deflection of the liner in response to compressive stresses so that the accuracy of movement of the bearing within the race is increased significantly. The layer of low friction material may be formed from an intimate mixture of an adhesive and small particles of a low friction material.