Patent ID: 7244686

Claim:
A bearing produced from a silicon nitride material consisting of (a) a sintering aid selected from the group consisting of Al 2 O 3 and Y 2 O 3 , (b) silicon dioxide, and (c) optionally, up to 10 mole %, based on the amount of silicon nitride, of an additive that react with silicon nitride, said additive selected from the group consisting of TiO 2 , WO 3 , MoO 3 and mixtures thereof, wherein the sintering aid and the silicon dioxide are present in a grain boundary phase, and wherein i) the amounts of silicon dioxide and the sintering aid in the grain boundary phase are such that the molar ratio of (silicon dioxide) to (silicon dioxide and sintering aid) is from 0.65:1 to 0.74:1, ii) the silicon nitride material has a silicon oxide nitride content of less than 1% by weight, iii) said silicon nitride material has a porosity of less than 0.5% by volume, and iv) said silicon nitride material has a mass loss of less than or equal to 0.3 mg/cm 2 when immersed in HCl at a temperature of 60° C. for 500 hours.