Experimental investigation of cage motions in an angular contact ball bearing

The commonly known effects of both the rotating speeds and external loads on the bearing dynamics or life behaviors are mostly caused by its cage dynamics, because of the complicated contact and collision interactions between the cage and other parts such as the inner or outer rings and balls. In this paper, experimental investigation of dynamic motions of a cage is carried out under various rotating speeds and external loads in a ball bearing. On a bearing test rig, the cage motions in axial and radial directions are measured by use of eddy transducers installed inside the bearing house and the subpanel. Then the measured results are analyzed by fast Fourier transform and compared at different operating conditions including rotating speeds, axial and radial forces, or moments. The three-dimensional space motions of the cage are also constructed to illustrate its different modes. Results reveal that the cage motions are typically periodic in the three directions. The motion frequencies consist of the cage rotating frequency and its multi-frequency, the inner ring rotating frequency, and also some combination frequencies of the cage and inner ring. The obtained characteristic frequencies of the cage motion in axial are similar to that in radial, but different in the variety of amplitudes under the same operating conditions. The increment of rotating speeds and axial loads of the bearing gradually make the whirl trajectories of the cage mass center regular, and enlarge its whirl radii. Instead, the whirl trajectories change from well-defined patterns to complicated ones, and its whirl radii decrease on increasing the radial loads and moments of the bearing. All the obtained experimental results are useful references for dynamic design and life prediction of high-speed and low-load bearings commonly used in many machines.