Myonic ball bearings get the right spin with Vollmer 22.09.2025

At the dentist, in the aircraft or on the lathe – wherever something is turning, Myonic products are at the centre of the action. The company from Leutkirch has been developing ball bearings with the highest precision for almost 50 years. To manufacture them, specific carbide cutting tools are required, and Myonic has recently started producing these using the Vollmer VGrind 360S grinding machine. The machine from the Biberach based sharpening specialist is also used for resharpening drills, milling cutters and reamers.

“Everyone, from every walk of life, has tested the mettle of our products,” says Christoph von Appen, CEO of Myonic GmbH. “We are a global leader in the dental sector and generate around a third of our sales from dental bearings. We also develop ball and roller bearings that ensure the correct rotation in X-ray equipment, machine tools and aerospace systems, among other things.”

Ball bearings from Leutkirch are at home all over the world

Founded in 1968 as “MKL Miniaturkugellager Leutkirch GmbH”, Myonic has two sites in Leutkirch, Germany, and an assembly plant in Rožnov in the Czech Republic. With almost 550 employees, Myonic generates annual sales of around 63 million euros, with exports accounting for 60 per cent. The company is also part of the Japanese MinebeaMitsumi Group. In turn, Myonic’s customers across the world benefit from the cross-border cooperation within the Group, which unites 90 subsidiaries in 27 countries and has more than 100,000 employees.

“To enable us to manufacture our ball bearings precisely, we need customised tools of the highest quality for metal cutting, with diameters ranging from a few millimetres to several centimetres,” says Christoph von Appen. “In order to produce the extremely thin tools for the dental sector ourselves, we opted for a VGrind 360S in 2024. We nicknamed the Vollmer machine “Sieglinde” because it was delivered on Sieglinde Vollmer’s 100th birthday. Sadly, Sieglinde Vollmer passed away in January 2025 – but we honour her memory with the name of our VGrind 360S.”

Sieglinde Vollmer was the daughter of company founder Heinrich Vollmer and steered the fortunes of the company for decades – initially as Managing Director, later as a member of the Supervisory Board and as a trustee of the Sieglinde Vollmer Foundation until her death.

Global market leaders from Germany have precision in their genes

The Biberach-based sharpening specialist Vollmer had to travel less than 50 kilometres to deliver the VGrind 360S grinding machine to Myonic. The proximity of the two German world market leaders was one of the reasons why Myonic decided in favour of the VGrind 360S. Added to this is the sophisticated technology paired with simple operation. The basis for the machine’s precise sharpening processes are two vertically configured grinding spindles, which enable efficient multi-level machining and therefore eliminate problems related to fixed and floating bearings that are otherwise typical of machines. In addition, the grinding wheel set at the pivot point of the C axis and the wear-free linear induction motors on the X, Y and Z axes ensure repeatable and stable tool production at all times. Combined with the HP 170 pallet magazine, which can hold up to 900 blanks, Myonic can use the VGrind 360S in unmanned operation around the clock.

In the dental sector, ball bearings are exposed to enormous forces

Small drills and milling cutters with special contours, which Myonic requires for the production of its dental bearings, are rarely available on the global market. With the VGrind 360S, however, carbide tools with a diameter of less than one millimetre can be produced precisely and specific to each application. This level of precision is essential, as dental bearings are exposed to enormous loads in the smallest of spaces. When dentists use their drill, the delicate ball bearings with diameters of just a few millimetres are subjected to enormous speeds of up to 500,000 revolutions per minute. In addition to high vibrations, they also have to withstand attacks from hot steam and various cleaning media. In addition, the special ball bearings from Myonic must be hermetically sealed against the ingress of dirt such as blood or dental dust.

“We use the VGrind 360S to produce internal carbide tools, but also to manufacture special parts for production. For the coming year, we are planning to produce up to 8500 parts and tools on the machine. This is achieved with an unmanned, automated runtime of around 70 per cent,” says Martin Haug, Manager Mechanical & Tool Service at Myonic. “The low maintenance and servicing requirements of the machine guarantee our production time and therefore a high level of efficiency.”

Ball bearings from Myonic fly all the way to Mars

The rolling bearings developed by Myonic are used in X-ray tubes and must guarantee high-precision, low-loss and vibration-free running in every positional direction at enormous forces and temperatures of up to 550 degrees Celsius. To generate the required number of images with a high-end CT scanner, an X-ray tube unit rotates around the patient up to four times per second. The components experience lateral accelerations that can correspond to 50 times the acceleration due to gravity. At the same time, the rotating anode rotates around its own axis at up to 10,000 revolutions per minute.

The range of ball and roller bearings from Myonic extends to industries such as aerospace, mechanical engineering and the energy sector. For custom-made flywheel energy storage systems, electric vehicles, energy recovery systems or rotary table systems, the diameter of the rolling bearings may be well over one metre. In the aerospace industry, Myonic ball bearings are not only used in aeroplanes for precise and low-friction rotation, but also in the depths of space: Myonic ball bearings ensure the correct rotation in satellites and probes that explore the earth and the entire solar system – including in NASA’s Mars rover “Curiosity”, which has been making its rounds on the red planet for 13 years now.

“The automotive, mechanical engineering, and manufacturing industries use our grinding, eroding and laser machines to produce or resharpen their own cutting tools,” says Tobias Trautmann, CEO of the Vollmer Group. “Our sharpening machines are used for in-house production, especially when it comes to complex special tools that are cost-intensive or even impossible to produce externally – and some customers have even developed a new business segment from this and are selling these tools.”