Effects of Roller Diameter and Number on Fatigue Lives of Cam Roller Follower Bearings

Effects of roller diameter and number on the contact pressures, subsurface stresses and the fatigue lives of cam roller follower bearings are investigated in this paper. Finite element analyses under plane strain conditions were conducted to identify the effects of the diameter and number of the rolling elements and the thickness of the outer ring. The fatigue life of the inner pin generally increases as the roller diameter increases. But, reducing the number of rollers to accommodate larger rollers does not necessarily increase the fatigue life. The inevitable decrease of the thickness of the outer ring due to the increase of the roller diameter results in the increase of compliance for the outer ring. This increase of compliance leads to excessive deformation of the outer ring and consequently more load must be carried by fewer number of rolling elements. For cam roller follower bearings, a parametric study based on the finite element analyses should be conducted to obtain the optimum geometry which gives the lowest contact pressure and maximum subsurface Mises stress which results in the longest fatigue life.