Development of Long Life Bearing in Contaminated Lubrication

Recently, the performance of automobiles and industrial machines has improved remarkably. Bearing performance requirements have also increased. One of the performance requirements for bearings is increased bearing life in contaminated lubrication which contains wear debris.

The bearing failure modes in contaminated lubricant are peeling caused by debris, and/or surface-initiated flaking caused by dent. Bearing life is increased by optimizing the surface hardness and the amount of retained austenite.

Based on these results, a new bearing was developed, which showed ten times longer life than conventional bearings in contaminated lubrication.