Rolamite is a technology for very low friction bearings developed by Sandia National Laboratories in the 1960s. Invented by Sandia engineer Donald F. Wilkes and patented by him on June 24, 1969[1] these devices use a stressed metal band and counter rotating rollers within an enclosure to create a linear bearing device that loses very little energy to friction. One source claims it is the only basic mechanical invention of the 20th century.[2] Tests by Sandia indicated that Rolamite mechanisms demonstrated friction coefficients as low as 0.0005, an order of magnitude better than ball bearings at the time.
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