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Split ring, angular-contact bearing has only one ball path on the inner race and the outer race. Upon failure of either races or balls, bearing is reversed in its housing so that force is applied to opposite points on the races and bearing operation is unaffected by previous failure.
Ball valve design incorporates modular construction in easy-to-install, easy-to-replace cartridge housing, and a system of cams to lift upstream and downstream seals away from the ball during rotation. Tests conducted on nitrogen tetroxide prove new valve to be more efficient than previous models in preventing leakage.
Ball bearing dynamics, considering motion equations for four degree of freedom balls and six degree of freedom separator
Ball-bearing retainer assembly reduces friction in ball-and-socket mount which replaces gimbals mounting used with spacecraft antennas.
Undersized spacer balls rub against oil impregnated wiper, pick up lubricant, and transmit it to load carrying balls and raceways.
Mechanical device for reducing the stresses imposed on ball bearings when bearings are exposed to forces caused by vibration is described. Bearing protector is press fitted on rotor shaft and slip fitted into bearing housing. Bearing stop which contacts inner race stops shaft and bearing when moving along shaft axis and removes load from ball bearings.
Machine was developed to finish ball to roundness within 12.5 nm (half a microinch) from any types of hard material. Grinding and polishing to this tolerance is accomplished by lapping elements on four to six motor-driven spindles. Spindles are adjustably spring-loaded to ensure constant contact pressure on ball and are driven by variable speed electric motors.
Optimized series-hybrid fluid-film ball bearings are described and operating characteristics are calculated and discussed. It is predicted that a series-hybrid bearing may be constructed which will reduce ball-bearing speed by 30 percent thereby increasing bearing fatigue life by factors of up to 5.9. Flow rates required are less than 9 kilograms per minute.
A Newton-Raphson method of iteration was used in evaluating the radial and axial projection of the distance between the ball center and the outer raceway groove curvature center (V and W). Fatigue life evaluations were made. The similar analysis of a conventional bearing can be directly obtained from the arched bearing analysis by simply letting the amount of arching be zero (g = 0) and not considering equations related to the unloaded half of the outer race. The analysis was applied to a 150-mm angular contact ball bearing. Results for life, contact loads, and angles are shown for a conventional bearing (g = 0) and two arched bearings (g = 0.127 mm (0.005 in.), and 0.254 mm (0.010 in.)). The results indicate that an arched bearing is highly desirable for high speed applications. In particular, for a DN value of 3 million (20,000 rpm) and an applied axial load of 4448 N (1000 lb), an arched bearing shows an improvement in life of 306 percent over that of a conventional bearing. At 4.2 million DN (28,000 rpm), the corresponding improvement is 340 percent. It was also found for low speeds, the arched bearing does not offer the advantages that it does for high speed applications.
Ball bearings (40-mm bore) with lead coated, aluminum-bronze retainers were operated successfully in liquid hydrogen at 30,000 rpm under a thrust load of 1780 newtons (400 lb) for running times up to 15 hours. The lead transfer films on the bearing surfaces prevented galling of bearing components. The lead coated retainers used in this investigation show promise for use in the high radiation environments, where polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) based materials are not suitable. Failure was a result of the loss of lead lubricant on the retainer-inner-land and ball-pocket surfaces. The longest bearing life (15 hr) was achieved with a lead coating thickness of 50 micrometers (0.002 in.) on the retainer. Other bearings had lives of 2 to 6 hours.
Thrust-load analysis of a 150-mm angular contact ball bearing, taking into account centrifugal forces but omitting gyroscopics, elastohydrodynamics, and thermal effects. A Newton-Raphson method of iteration is used to evaluate the radial and axial projection of the distance between the ball center and the outer raceway groove curvature center. Fatigue life of the bearing is evaluated. Results for life, contact loads, and angles are given for a conventional bearing and two arched bearings.
Three-dimensional stress distributions were calculated for both a regular drilled ball with a stiffening web. The balls were 20.6 mm (0.8125 in.) in diameter and had a 12.6 mm (0.496 in.) diameter concentric hole. The stiffening web was 1.5 mm (0.06 in.) thick. The calculations showed that a large reversing tangential stress at the hole bore was reduced by one-half by the addition of the web.
A ball bearing life test program was performed to obtain data on the efficiencies of various lubricated and self-lubricating ball retainer systems for instrument bearings in a vacuum environment. The program utilized light to moderate radial loads at relatively low speeds on a NASA-GSFC designed and supplied test rig. Several systems were found which gave acceptable bearing life under the test conditions used, but the most consistent low running torques after testing resulted from oil lubrication.
A parametric study was performed with 120-mm bore angular-contact ball bearings having a nominal contact angle of 20 degrees. The bearings had either an inner- or an outer-race land riding cage, and lubrication was by recirculating oil jets which had either a single or dual orifice. Thrust load, speed, and lubricant flow rate were varied. Test results were compared with those previously reported and obtained from bearings of the same design which were under-race lubricated but run under the same conditions. Jet lubricated ball bearings were limited to speeds less than 2,500,000 DN, and bearings having inner-race land riding cages produced lower temperatures than bearings with outer-race land riding cages. For a given lubricant flow rate dual orifice jets produced lower bearing temperatures than single orifice jets, but under-race lubrication produced lower bearing temperatures under all conditions of operation with no apparent bearing speed limitation.
Review of the underlying fundamentals, the performance procedure, and the results of an elastodynamic stress and deformation analysis of hollow balls aimed at providing a clear definition of parametric influences for the development of hollow ball bearing technology. A simplified model is used as a first approximation, and contact stress distributions are obtained with the aid of computer programming and processing.
Stresses in dimensionally similar large models of 40-, 50- and 60-percent mass reduction cylindrically hollow 'drilled' bearing balls were experimentally evaluated with flat strain gage rosettes. Dimensionless principal stress coefficients were calculated and were applied to estimate the bending stresses in the drilled balls of three series of full-scale bearing experiments. Stresses were highest when the applied load approached the edge of the hole, and ranged up to almost 620 million Newtons per sq m at the bore.
Experiments were conducted on a newly designed total hip joint simulator. The apparatus closely simulates the complex motions and loads of the human hip in normal walking. The wear and friction of presently used appliance configurations and materials were determined. A surface treatment of the metal femoral ball specimens was applied to influence wear. The results of the investigation indicate that wear can be reduced by mechanical treatment of metal femoral ball surfaces. A metallographic examination and surface roughness measurements were made.
A parametric study was performed with 120-mm bore angular-contact ball bearings having a nominal contact angle of 20 deg. The bearings either had an inner- or an outer-race land riding cage. Lubrication was by recirculating oil jets. The oil jets either had a single or dual orifice. Thrust load, speed, and lubricant flow rate were varied. Test results were compared with those previously reported and obtained from bearings of the same design which were under-race lubricated but run under the same conditions. Jet lubricated ball bearings were limited to speeds less than 2,500,000 DN. Bearings having inner-race land riding cages produced lower temperatures than bearings with outer-race land riding cages. For a given lubricant flow rate dual orifice jets produced lower bearing temperatures than single orifice jets. However, under-race lubrication produced under all conditions of operation lower bearing temperatures with no apparent bearing speed limitation.