Hirokazu Nakashima

Improvement of Rolling Contact Fatigue Life of Carburized Tapered Roller Bearings

Amelioration de la resistance de fatigue de contact roulant des roulements a rouleaux coniques cementes

New steels now in use for automotive rolling element bearings

With the development of clean steels, the influence of retained austenite on the rolling contact fatigue (RCF) life has changed. Under clean oil lubrication, the favorable influence of retained austenite disappeared, Utilizing th is phenomenon, a long life material for high temperature was developed with the use of the element Si which improves the heat resistance of steel. With the continuous casting becoming common steel making process, alloying elements should better be minimized because they cause segregation. From this point of view, a medium carbon through hardening steel which has competing RCF life with SUJ2 was developed. Under debris contaminated lubrication, retained austenite has ever favorable effect on RCF life. For these reasons, surface modification is important. Long life bearings under debris contaminated lubrication were developed by carbonitriding a through hardening steel or a carburizing steel, respectively.

New retainer material for high speed and high temperature cylindrical roller bearing

Cylindrical roller bearings are being developed which can operate over 300°C and greater than three million DN for innovative gas-generators. Under such severe conditions, it is necessary for retainers to be frictionless, lightweight and strong. After preliminary testing, SiC particle reinforced aluminum alloy composite appeared to have good friction and wear properties. Its specific gravity is about one-third of the present material in use, silver-coated SAE4340. In the course of the study, two different friction and wear tests were conducted to investigate the optimum volume fraction of SiC. The results indicated that the most efficient volume fraction was 20vol%. The tensile strength of Al-20vol%SiC was about 140MPa at 300°C. Based on the results of FEM analysis, 140MPa is considered sufficient to endure any stress concentration caused by tensile hoop stresses up to four million DN. Presented at the 54th Annual Meeting Las Vegas, Nevada May 23–27, 1999