Selection Principles of Rolling Bearing Steel

When designing and manufacturing rolling bearings, bearing materials are generally selected according to the following principles.

one. Select according to the working conditions of the bearing

  1. Operating temperature

Bearings operating at room temperature are made of chromium bearing steel. Chromium bearing steel is also used when the working temperature is higher than 150°C and lower than 250°C, but it requires special heat treatment (tempering at 200°C or 300°C is required).

2. Amount of impact load to withstand

Bearings that bear strong impact loads generally do not use chromium bearing steel. Most of them use high-quality carburized structural steel, impact-resistant tool steel or quenched and tempered structural steel.

3． Contact medium

Bearings used in corrosive media must be made of corrosion-resistant steel or alloy steel with good corrosion resistance.

two. Selection based on bearing structure type

The structure of the bearing parts is complex, such as the outer ring with mounting ribs, and when it is subject to high impact loads, carburized steel with good processing performance should be used; the outer ring of stamped needle roller bearings can be made of 08 and 10 low carbon steel (good plasticity , suitable for cold stamping processing); the spherical bearings used on the swing mechanism or control mechanism can be cold extruded from GCr15, 9Cr18, 9Cr8Mo and alloy structural steel with excellent cold plastic deformation properties.

three. Select according to bearing fatigue life and reliability requirements

Bearing fatigue life and reliability depend to a certain extent on the purity and structural uniformity of the steel. For general use, ordinary bearing steel smelted in acidic open furnaces or alkaline electric furnaces is often used. With the continuous improvement of smelting methods, new smelting methods such as current remelting, vacuum smelting, and electron beam furnace smelting have emerged. The service life of bearings made of bearing steel made by the above methods has also been improved accordingly. It is suitable for bearings with special requirements on fatigue life and reliability, such as railway vehicle axle box bearings, aircraft engine spindle bearings and navigation system bearings.

In addition, when selecting steel types, the processing performance, supply and domestic resources of steel should also be comprehensively considered.