Surface roughness evolution of ball bearing components

An accurate knowledge of the expected life is essential to the proper selection of ball bearings. Bearings principally fail owing to fatigue if they are properly lubricated, mounted and sealed against the entrance of dirt. Fatigue life is strongly correlated to the surface roughness. Experiments were performed to evaluate the effects of different ball bearings materials on the surface roughness, the bearing temperature and the power consumption of a high speed spindle. The use of hybrid or pseudo-hybrid ball bearings show competitive tribologic characteristics and a slower increase in surface roughness with reference to steel, which makes them very attractive for high speed spindle systems.