THE ADVERSE EFFECT OF STEEL PARTICLE CONTAMINANTS ON FATIGUE LIFE OF GREASE LUBRICATED BALL BEARINGS

The rating life of ball bearings is reduced when ha rd particle contaminants are present in the lubrica nt. Usually, this life reduction is taken into account in the calculation of modified rating life by using the contamination factor through a general characteriza tion of the lubrication conditions. However, the im pact of contaminant’s variables such as size, hardness a nd concentration level has to be specified in detai l. This need is resolved by the present work, where greases contaminated with hard steel particles of differen t sizes are tested with the purpose of finding a pattern in the relationship between steel particle sizes and the progress of wear inside the bearings. A laboratory rig is utilized for these tests and vibration analy sis is performed to estimate the condition and the residua l life of the bearings. After the tests, optical in spections performed in a stereoscope verify the predictions o f vibration analyses. It was found that large contaminating particles, after their initial deform ation, produce high stresses and therefore higher w ear of the bearings and that the wear mechanism is clos ely related to the interruption of the lubricating film in such a way that local overheating caused po int melting and adhesion of the particles adhered o n the raceways. In case of grease contaminated with s teel particles, vibration analysis can indicate the severity of wear and monitor its progress. From the conducted tests of the present work it is proved that the size of the contaminant particles affect s trongly the wear process in such a way that the lar ger steel particle contaminants cause greater damage to the bearing. The vibration levels were higher and the damage was greater as particle size increased. It is difficult to establish an equation that descr ibes and quantifies the wear progress involving all the para meters of size and concentration levels of the stee l contaminant particles due to the stochastic nature of the wear mechanisms and therefore presently a statistical approach of the wear and the residual l ife expectancy seems to be more practical. The collection of a large number of experimental result s is underway.

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