Bearing Knowledge for SALES

A Basic elementary course [Part 1]

attempted to
IMPROVE & REINFORCE
the Technical and Product knowledge

Why do we need bearings any way ?

To make improvements in Life , Ancient MAN had to ..
Push or Pull heavy objects over long distances
Also , use of Mud & Water proved to be a good Lubricant in doing so !!!.
With the invention of WHEEL, rolling motion required less effort than sliding motion
& was less damaging to the surfaces .

Bearings using rolling motion only , were eventually developed for use
in machinery

History of ROLLER BEARING

Around 700 B.C. logs were placed under heavy loads , which allowed them
to be rolled over the logs.
An example of what is known today as a linear bearing

BATTERING RAM - This is an early example of a linear bearing. The

battering ram rides back and forth on rollers placed in roll tracks. This was
a Greek design of around 330 B.C..

CART II - Between 300 and 100 B.C., the Celtics used a cart similar to this. It used
metal axles and hubs but also used a full set of cylinder shaped rollers made of
wood. True Anti-Friction design. The cart was easy to pull, however, it had a low
weight capacity due to the rollers being wood.

An early example of a wooden ball bearing, supporting a rotating table,

was retrieved from the remains of a Roman ship in Lake Nemi, Italy .The wreck
was dated to 40 BC.

Leonardo da Vinci is said to have described a type of ball

bearing around the year 1500

BALL BEARING DEVELOPMENT - Grooved channels were used with

balls for ball bearings. The groves and metal balls lead to the more common ball
bearing. Many variations were developed. The bicycles need for low friction
prompted much of the development during this time. The Industrial revolution
lead to further development and common usage.

Sven Wingquist
Sven Wingquist was a technical genius and visionary. His invention of the self aligning
ball bearing in 1907 solved one of the biggest industrial problems of the time - the
continual production stoppages caused by the bearing failure.

Gothenburg's clay virtually gave birth to a world-renowned product. The factories

known as Gamlestadens Fabriker, where a young textile engineer Sven Wingquist was
employed, were built on blue clay. That is why the buildings subsided, causing
misalignment of the ceiling-mounted drive shafts.
Consequently, the rigid ball bearings supporting the shafts very quickly became badly
worn.Sven Wingquist though hard, read up about the subject and made some calculations.
Finally he completed his drawings for a double row self-aligning ball bearing. Now it
would not matter if the shaft suffered a certain amount of angular misalignment.
With the characteristic burning enthusiasm of a technical genius, Sven Wingquist went
further and further ahead. He developed and took out patents on other items such as new
types of ball bearings, a universal joint, a grinding machine for gear wheels and an
automatic gearbox. .
In the same year the self-aligning ball bearing became a commercial reality, SKF was
founded, with Sven Wingquist at the head.

The modern, self-aligning design of ball bearing is attributed

to Sven Wingquist of the SKF ball-bearing manufacturer in
1907.

Tapered Roller Bearings

Why to use bearing ?

Locate rotation axis

Ensure rotation
Transmit axial and radial (dynamic and static)
loads
Minimize rotation resistance

Support a rotating mass

Reduce friction

BEARINGS TYPES
Bearings are needed whenever one part of a machine slides against another
Bearings can be classified as providing sliding

Sliding bearing

or rolling contact.

A shaft and bushing

bearing is known as a journal bearing.

Fluid Film Bearings are machine elements

Designed to produce smooth (Low friction )
Motion between solid surfaces in relative
Motion and to generate a LOAD Support
For the mechanical components . The Lubricant
Or fluid between the surfaces may be a liquid , a
Gas or even a solid .

What are the rolling Bearings? Rolling Contact Bearings? OR

Anti Friction Bearings.

Definition : Class of bearings in which main load is transferred

through elements in rolling contact rather than sliding contact

Function : To decrease the FRICTION between

the elements in relative motion .
Rolling bearings have the following advantages
compared with the plain bearings
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Low starting moment.

Low friction at all speeds.
Low energy consumption.
High reliability.
Small width.
Low consumption of lubricant.
Long re-lubrication intervals.
Easy to mount and dismount.
Standardized dimensions.

Common Rolling elements which forms, the basis of

Rolling Contact Bearings

Load :: Definition
The fundamental purpose of a bearing is to transmit the load between a
stationary part of a machine (Commonly a housing ) and the rotating
part of the machine (Commonly a shaft ) OR vice versa , with a
minimum of resistance .
The loads carried can arise from :
The mass of the machine or its components
The mass of the material to be conveyed ( raw material , payload)
Changes of momentum ( Acceleration , deceleration, changes of
direction)
The transmission of power (belt and chain drives , gears and
gearboxes)
These loads must be transmitted between the inner and outer rings of
the bearing via the rolling element .

Loads on Bearing

This is an illustration showing the forces which act within the basic bearing.
Yellow and Green arrows indicate radial loading from the railcar.
The Purple arrow represents a lateral load, possibly present from track curvature.
The Red arrows represent the tendency for the cones to separate from the tapered
design.
The Blue arrows indicate the lateral force necessary to prevent cone separation.
This force is provided by bearing clamp. In addition, bearing clamp prevents
components from creeping or spinning on the journal.

STRESS , STRAIN & LOAD RELATION SHIP

Stress
If a force or load acts on a piece of metal , it is actually distributed through the
metal and the intensity of that force in any particular part of the material is called the stress .
( Force or load per unit of cross sectional area) i.e.if the force or load is constant the stress will be
highest where the cross sectional area is smallest . e.g. if the force exerted in Fig 2.6 is 100 000
newtons the cross sectional area at the point indicated is 10 mm2 then the stress on the area is
10 000 N/ mm2

Strain
It is a measure of the change in shape or dimension
of the object caused by stress .

Orthogonal Shear Stress :Bearing related.

This is the Shear Stress which is acting below and parallel to the surface ,tending to tear
the bearing Steel apart . This Shear stress and the depth at which its maximum value occurs
Is influenced not only by the contact stress due to LOAD but also by the TRACTIVE
FORCES occurring at the surface due to friction .

Stress in Bearings

In Bearings :
LOADS acting between the hardened raceways and the
hardened rolling elements develop only small areas of contact .
Even when the load may seem relatively small , acting through
the very small contact area , it creates relatively high contact
stresses .
It is very common for Rolling Bearings to operate continuosly
with compressive contact stresses exceeding 1400 N/mm2 .
In some of the applications the compressive stresses may well
exceed 3500 N/mm2 some of the highest stresses existing in
Engineering systems .

Fatigue Failure in Bearings

In a bearing ,as the rolling element rolls over a
point on the raceway, the Stress is first being
applied and then released many times each
second .
FATIGUE results , when machine parts &
structures are subjected to repeated and
reversing stresses. These frequent stress
fluctuations may cause the material to
FRACTURE , far below its THEORETICAL
maximum static strength.

Lundberg-Palmgren fatigue life theory

Failures in rolling bearings were observed to be
intiating below the contact surfaces of the raceways.
In 1947 Gustaf Lundberg (a Professor at Chalmers
University in Sweden) and Palmgren postulated that the
shear stresses occuring below the surface in conjuction
with responsible for crack initiation, which ultimately
led to spalling (klaking) of the raceway and failure.
The sub--surface shear stress varies both in magnitude
and direction as a point in the raceway passes through
the contact region.

Fatigue Strength & Micro Inclusions

The fatigue strength of a bearing is greatly affected by the

number of non-metallic inclusions in the steel. These
inclusions present stress points where micro-cracks can
develop. The repeated contact stress of the balls rolling
over an inclusion causes additional stress in the steel
surrounding the inclusion. The micro-cracks enlarge,
weakening the material. Eventually these cracks break out at
the surface of the raceway allowing a small piece to crack
out. This is known as spalling

STEEL Purity & Fatigue Life

During the steel making process, a number of materials can enter and
combine with the steel. Contaminants found in steel include silicone, aluminum
and sulfur. When combined with oxygen, they form inclusions. Each type of
inclusion affects bearing fatigue differently. Oxide inclusions weaken the
steel. The total amount of oxide group inclusions in steel can be represented
by the amount of oxygen in the steel: the higher the oxygen content, the
lower the fatigue life.

Improvement in STEEL making :

Vacuum-melt or vacuum-degassing processes control the amount of nonmetallic inclusions in bearing steel. Further developments by Bearing
Manufacturers in conjunction with steel manufacturers have resulted in even
lower inclusion levels to improve quality and extend fatigue life. Prior to

this, bearings meeting these specifications were manufactured from

aircraft-quality steel at a premium cost.

Ultra Clean Steel Extends Bearing Life

In the commitment to produce the most durable,
highest quality bearings possible, SKF has been a
leader in the development of ultra-clean steels for
bearing rings and rolling elements. SKF strongly
reccomends to use steel which is a highly pure
vacuum-degassed, high-carbon chromium steel
containing a minimum of non-metallic inclusions.
Research proves that ultra-clean steel combined with
the appropriate heat treatment significantly increases
the rolling fatigue life of bearings.
Steel used for bearing components require the
following characteristics:

Good hardenability
High purity
High rolling contact fatigue strength
High wear resistance

Contd

CLEAN STEEL & FATIGUE LIFE

Steels for application to bearing qualities are subjected

to the most stringent quality control and are the
applications where significant breakthroughs in steel
quality have been made.
It is well known that total inclusion content (as measured
by total oxygen content) has traditionally correlated with
bearing life and decreased total oxygen contents (below
10 ppm) have lead to significant increases in bearing life.
In addition to total oxygen content, the total length of
stringer inclusions after forging correlates well with
bearing life and, at low total oxygen levels, efforts to
reduce inclusion clustering leads to very long fatigue life
for bearings.

Ovako Steel :Cleanliness Specs.

Factors affecting Rolling resistance

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Elastic properties of the material

Condition of the surfaces
Shape and position of the surfaces
Magnitude of the perpendicular force
Magnitude and direction of the Tangential
force
Speed of rolling
Temperature
Condition of the Lubricant and atmoshpere.

Elastic Contacts Elasticity is the ability of the material to return to its

ORIGINAL shape , when the LOAD is removed .

 Contact Shape & Osculation for Ball Bearings

1.

2.
3.

Raceway radius is not larger than the radius of the Ball

[loose Osculation or Conformity]
Raceway is made with only a slightly larger radius than the
Ball [ Tight Osculation or Conformity ]
In PARCTICE raceway radius is ~ 2-6% larger than the Ball
radius

Roller Shape
In Roller bearings , Rollers and Raceways are not manufactured to be
perfectly having Cylindrical shape

1.
2.

To avoid high stresses at the edge of the contact

Allow some mis-alignment in the Application

Small changes to CONTACT GEOMETRY

Which may only be a few Microns in size,
Are very important to the performance of the Bearing.

Loaded Zone
The picture below illustrates the load zone of the bearing. The size of the load
zone is determined by many factors including the fitment and bearing in
question .
The more rolling elements that share the load, the less each one has to carry and
the lower the maximum rolling element load will be.
There are only a few rolling elements that are transferring load to the inner
raceway or cone at one time. Rolling elements enter and then exit the load zone.

LOADED ZONE

The sector of the raceway circumfrence of the Stationary bearing ring which is loaded
varies according to the direction of the LOAD acting on the bearing. This Sector is known as
LOADED ZONE.

Basic parameter to define a bearing

Bore diameter = d

Width =B

Outer diameter =D

Ball and Roller Bearing Ranges

Ball bearings
Deep
groove

Angular
contact

Roller bearings

Self-aligning Cylindrical Taper

Needle

Spherical