Abstract
Lieblein J. and Zelen A. conducted a study of the fatigue life of deep groove ball bearings. This study was based on data of 4948 bearings as obtained from 5 companies and 213 test groups. Among these data is a detailed test report #3183, lot 73, consisting of 23 failed bearings. This report states that the Weibull slope of this group is 2.23, meaning that this distribution is mono sloped. These test data were plotted by the author on a bilinear scale plane, of endurance life versus bearing number and proved to be distinctly bi sloped. This basic difference prompted a wide study resulting in several new findings and set the grounds for a new analysis method.
Highlights
Rolling contact bearings operate at high stress levels, causing them to have no endurance limit, and having a finite service life
The lubricant designated in the test report for bearings #3183 lot 73 is jet oil [3]
The shallow part of the plot contains 43.5% of the bearings and two types of items which are not in contact with moving parts, namely the bore and the disc. These items fail under cavitation erosion which develops in the water-containing
Summary
Rolling contact bearings operate at high stress levels, causing them to have no endurance limit, and having a finite service life. This life is rather dispersed, reaching a ratio of 20:1 between the extreme life values. Slope values from 1.0 to 4.0 imply early wear-out, and characterize many mechanical failure modes, including most bearing failures. The ball bearing test report [3] presents the slope value of 2.23, fitting well with the above mentioned Weibull range. The mono sloped Weibull plot does not diagnose the failures and their origin, requiring a further engineering study. The following study supplies several answers in order to diagnose these failures, and suggests a new method for bearing failure analysis. The new method is based on the bimodal failure concept, which considers both liquid and solid phases in the bearings as active participants in the failure process
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