A Modified Ball-on-Rod Type Rolling Contact Fatigue (RCF) Tester for Accelerated Testing of Candidate Lubricants and Bearing Materials

This paper describes the modified ball-on-rod type rolling contact fatigue (RCF) tester for accelerated screening of candidate lubricants and materials. The modified tester has the capability to evaluate three different lubrication methods that include liquid lubrication, solid lubrication (both coatings and powders) and vapor phase lubrication. The tribological properties such as friction force, wear volume and rolling contact fatigue life at different temperatures and loading conditions can be obtained. Test results are presented for liquid, coating and powder lubrication methods for VIMVAR M50 bearing steel. Results for the vapor phase test are based on a test conducted using T-15 bearing steel. The simple, expendable test specimen geometry reduces the testing variables and allows for easy post test evaluations.