CHARACTERIZATION OF WEAR IN BOUNDARY LUBRICATED SPHERICAL ROLLER THRUST-BEARINGS

Wear of boundary lubricated spherical roller thrust bearings has been characterised qualitatively as well as quantitatively with 3-d surface measurements and 2-d form measurements respectively. Due to the curve d contact surface in a spherical roller thrust bearing, the rollers wi ll undergo sliding in the contact. For an unskewed roller there will b e two points along each contact where the sliding velocity is zero. At all other points along the contact, sliding is present. The experimen tal results from the form measurements show that outside the zero-slid ing points there is a significant change in surface profile due to wea r. The results from 3-d surface measurements show that there are diffe rent wear mechanisms involved. Mild wear dominates at the start but fo r the long term tests, wear particles, presumably removed from the con tacting surfaces, clearly influence the amount of wear. (C) 1997 Elsev ier Science S.A.