TY - JOUR
T1 - Effect of silicon nitride balls and rollers on rolling bearing life
AU - Zaretsky, Erwin V.
AU - Vlcek, Brian L.
AU - Hendricks, Robert C.
PY - 2005/7
Y1 - 2005/7
N2 - Three decades have passed since the introduction of silicon nitride rollers and balls into conventional rolling-element bearings. For a given applied load, the contact (Hertz) stress in a hybrid bearing will be higher than that of an all-steel rolling-element bearing. The silicon nitride rolling-element life as well as the lives of the steel races were used to determine the resultant bearing life of both hybrid and all-steel bearings. Life factors were determined and reported for hybrid bearings. Under nominal operating speeds, the resultant calculated lives of the deep-groove, angular-contact, and cylindrical roller hybrid bearings with races made of post-1960 bearing steel increased by factors of 3.7, 3.2, and 5.5, respectively, from those calculated using the Lundberg-Palmgren equations. An all-steel bearing under the same load will have a longer life than the equivalent hybrid bearing under the same conditions. Under these conditions, hybrid bearings are predicted to have a lower fatigue life than all-steel bearings by 58 % for deep-groove bearings, 41 % for angular-contact bearings, and 28% for cylindrical roller bearings.
AB - Three decades have passed since the introduction of silicon nitride rollers and balls into conventional rolling-element bearings. For a given applied load, the contact (Hertz) stress in a hybrid bearing will be higher than that of an all-steel rolling-element bearing. The silicon nitride rolling-element life as well as the lives of the steel races were used to determine the resultant bearing life of both hybrid and all-steel bearings. Life factors were determined and reported for hybrid bearings. Under nominal operating speeds, the resultant calculated lives of the deep-groove, angular-contact, and cylindrical roller hybrid bearings with races made of post-1960 bearing steel increased by factors of 3.7, 3.2, and 5.5, respectively, from those calculated using the Lundberg-Palmgren equations. An all-steel bearing under the same load will have a longer life than the equivalent hybrid bearing under the same conditions. Under these conditions, hybrid bearings are predicted to have a lower fatigue life than all-steel bearings by 58 % for deep-groove bearings, 41 % for angular-contact bearings, and 28% for cylindrical roller bearings.
KW - Bearing life prediction
KW - Hybrid rolling bearings
KW - Rolling-element bearings
KW - Silicon nitride rolling elements
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=27144517671&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/05698190500225011
DO - 10.1080/05698190500225011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:27144517671
SN - 1040-2004
VL - 48
SP - 425
EP - 435
JO - Tribology Transactions
JF - Tribology Transactions
IS - 3
ER -