Applications of microwave heat treatment process to enhance the surface properties of bronze and steel materials used in journal bearing

Abstract

Journal bearings are important conformal sliding contact machine elements widely used in industrial applications to support cylindrical shafts subjected to radial loads. Wear in journal bearings propagate due to increase in fatigue load cycles, lubricant degradation, misalignment, etc. Hence, it is important to minimize the occurrence of wear in journal bearings by improving their mechanical properties. Microwave heat treatment process is one of the recent developments emerged to improve the surface properties of materials in which energy is directly delivered to the material surface through molecular interaction with the electromagnetic field. In the present work, microwave heat treatment process was used to improve the performance of journal and bearing materials. Further, the microwave-treated journal and bearing specimens were used to conduct performance evaluation experiments under hydrodynamic lubrication regime operating condition. Results highlighted the importance of microwave treatment to reduce wear in both journal and bearing components. A significant reduction in friction coefficient and specific wear rate values were obtained, which resulted in a considerable improvement in the operating performance of the journal bearing system with respect to the increase in fatigue load cycles.