Appearing as pale hairline fissures, white etching marks emerge on bearing surfaces when application stress conditions exert heavy kinetic energies. The true material defect is hidden inside the alloy, so the etching cracks are the tip of the proverbial iceberg here. They’re a sign of a deeper issue. There are no two ways about it, […]
As detailed previously, bearing brinelling is an indentation effect that occurs when the elastic limits of a product’s race surfaces are surpassed. The balls push against the hard steel ring, and the spheroids create dents. Knowledge is power, as they say, so surely this particular nugget of information must be of help as a dent […]
Brinelling takes place on a bearing when its internal surfaces accumulate indentation damage. What causes the raceway dents? As with most mechanically caused problems, there are unmanageable mechanical stresses acting on the bearing parts and materials. A system overload smacks a rolling element hard, it deforms the raceway, and the brinelling effect amasses. Bearing contaminants […]
Idler pulleys are classed as non-drive rollers on a belt or chain impelled conveyor system. Now, without thinking about bearing features, we think about how unpowered idlers take up drivetrain slack. They enhance belt drive performance, in other words. But system idler pulleys feature another talent. Equipped with high-performance rolling elements, they work behind the […]
Linear bearings, the term sounds somehow counterintuitive, are designed differently. The bearings don’t use the standard rings and races that most rolling elements inhabit. That’s because there’s no rotating shaft to support and isolate here, not in the following applications. No, rings are out, rods and sliding bars are in, and everything is new again. […]