On 4 May 2014, Gehrig® created an unofficial world-record ‘crash test’ for ceramic roller bearings. With the help of the "Earth-to-sky-Calculus" stratosphere balloon group led [ https://www.facebook.com/earthtoskycalculus ] by Dr. T. Phillips in Bishop, California a single ceramic deep groove ball bearing* was carried to a height of 110,000 ft (33,500 m). The subsequent landing was made onto hard rock in the Death Valley area of the States. Afterwards the sample bearing was reviewed by an independent German test institute and showed no damage whatsoever.

*CZN 6004 J12 (20x42x12 mm; rings made of ceramic mixture zirconium oxide ZrO2-AA1, Ceramic Balls mixture of silicon nitride Si3N4-BA2, ball cage made of stainless steel AISI 304)