Investigation of wear, groove shape and load capacity of PPS-PTFE hybrid radial ball bearings

¹ Kyushu Sangyo University, 2-3-1, Matsukadai, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 813-8503, Japan
² University of Toyama Gofuku 3190, Toyama, 930-8555, Japan
³ Kashima bearings Inc. 2-9-21 Himesato Nishi-Yodogawa-ku Osaka, 555-0025, Japan

^a Corresponding author: kida@eng-u.toyama.ac.jp

Abstract

In order to improve the radial load capacity and wear loss of the PPS-PTFE hybrid bearings, the groove shape of the PPS inner ring in the PPS-PTFE hybrid bearing was designed based on ceramic bearing’s ball radius (r). The rolling contact fatigue tests were performed by using the PPS-PTFE hybrid bearings with the original (r*1.0) and modified (r*1.1) inner rings. The radial load capacity of the bearing using the rl.1 inner ring was improved 150% over the capacity of the bearing using the r1.0 inner ring. While the operation temperature of the bearing with the r1.1 inner ring was stable at 40 °C, that of the bearing with the r1.0 inner ring incresed rapidly over 100 °C and thermal failure occurred. Moreover, the wear loss of the bearings with the r1.1 inner ring was lower than that of the r1.0. Thus the groove shape influenced the tribology performance of the PPS-PTFE hybrid bearings.