Applied Uy aN 2? >, Paao UNOS BOOKTABLE OF CONTENTS NOMENCLATURE at ai vmes STRUCTURE . stn : ma) REMOVAL/INSTALLATION x i con 4 OPERATION 6 PERFORMING FAILURE ANALYSIS 8 ABNORMAL CONDITIONS 8 CONTACT STRESS FATIGUE 10 PLASTIC VIELOING 00 12 ADHESIVE WEAR, aici ss 15 ABRASIVE WEAR ‘a 16 CORROSION 6 FRETTING CORROSION AND GREEP «css z 16 ELECTRICAL PITTING AND FLUTING sane : Ww HANDLING AND INSTALLATION DAMAGE 7 18 FRACTURES : i a BEARING PROBLEMS parce 23 CONCLUDING THE ANALYSIS 24 FOREWORD ‘The purpose of this book js to explain and ilustrate basie principles to be used in the analysis of anti-friction bearing failures. information is condensed from the move complete Applied Faliure Analysis Seminar. Anyone wanting mora information about applied failure analysis should contact their local Caterpillar dealerNOMENCLATURE Newari BALL BEARING CYLINDRICAL ROLLER BEARING A. Outer ring (race) A. Outer ring (race) B. Outer ring raceway B Outer ring racoway ©. Outer ring 0. D. surface ©. Outer ring 0, D. surface ©. Cage 9. Cage E Balls Follers F. Inner ring (ra F Inner ring (race) G. Inner ring raceway . Inner ring raceway H. Inner ring bore or I. D. surface H. Innor ring |. D. or boro surface Ring Faces |. Ping faces J Ribs TAPERED ROLLER BEARING Cup (auter ring or race) Cup raceway Cup 0. D. surtace Front face of cup Back face of cup Cage G. Rolers H. Cone (inner ring or race) | Cone raceway J. Cone |. D. or bore surface K. Front face of cone L Rib on front face of cone M. Back face of cone N. Rib on back face of cone amoop>STRUCTURE Ant/fristion bearings are manufactured from top quality alloy beering stee's, Some are vacuum melted and most are ct vacuum degassed for maximum cleanliness, Races of most cylindrical and tapered roller bearings _*ollers are also case hardened (to Re 80 minimum) and aces apered role beailigs Ty round to final inerson: Gass herdentng Sees Bye cate sere fF 66 rutin (Gross ectin) gta good nuisance 10 ear S00 Wel ‘Tempering temperatures are approximately 375° to 400° F, maintaining & softer (Re 25 40), tougher sore: Ball and spherical roller bearings are manufactured in @ similar manner, except the races and rolling elements are Generally through hardened, Hence, we see no case depth on the all and race cross sections shown here. ©REMOVAL/INSTALLATION Itis very important to use the correct anti-triction bearings for the application and correct procedures for removing and installing them 1, Be sure to order bearings from the Caterpillar parts system toavoid using standard bearings where “specia bearings are called for, A video tape entitled “Caterpilar Anti-Friction Bearings” (sae photo below) expains tha mportance of using Caterpillar supplied bearings, Also booklet, "Straight Tak about Caterpillar Anii-fiction Bearings’ (see proto. below) anc pamphlet Form No, PEDP8110, ciscuss ‘standaro” and “special” bearings. 2. Bearings, shatts and housing bores must be clean and iree of dirt or other debris. 3. Proper tooling and procedures should be used to avoid excessive forces between races and raling elements, and ta avad damaging races, housings and shalt (see illustration below), 4. Alignment of shafts and housings needs to be accurate, The fit of bearings on shafts and ir housing bores must be correct, 6, Bearing adjustments (if called for) must be accurate, Correct quantity, viscosity, and type of lubricant must be used Refer to the Caterpillar parts system, service manuals and operation and maintenance manuals for the correst parts, tooling, procedures, and lubricetion specifications, Video tape Form No. TEVN1412 and Booklet Form No. PressraceSonto shaits crintohousings through only the PEDPS124, tace being mounted.Drawn cup neadle bearings need special care when installing 1. Press only on peering information end of cup. 2. Press only to a specified dapth, 3. Use proper tooling and procedures. 4, Follow service manual Beenie ems un me Stua Heating or freezing bearings for easier installation must be properly done. Use bearing heaters or freezing methods wnich are thermostatically controled, Don’tuse an open flame to heat bearings. Lubricant Tapared roller bearings should be adjusted following service manual instructions. When checking end play, rotate the shaft or housing to be sure bearings ere properly seated. Use specitied quantity, viscosity, and tyoe of ollor grease, Both underfiling and overfiling compariments can overheat bearings. Overfiling can cause churning resultinginhigh temperatures ang reduced lube w'scosity,OPERATION Normal loads may produce characteristic wear patternis on raceway suraces Radial Load © Inner Ring Radial Load ® Outer Ring Rotating, © Outer Ring Stationary. uxeheltiale} Olle aia) Stationary. Normal raceway wear on a radially loaded ball bearing, Typical wear pattern for a racially loaded ball bearing inner ring rotating, outer ring rotating, Both Radial & Thrust Ball bearing with consistent high thrust loads in one Bal kearing with both the rection only, larger wear pattern (down radial load. 1d radial loads, Note the ) in the directon of the J® @ Normal wear patterns on cylindrical and tapered roller bearings are similer to those seen on ball bearings. Surfaces on the large ends of rolle’s and back face ribs of cones on tapered roller bearings can show some wear since ‘seating forces" cause sliding loads between role end faces andrribs. Heavy scoring, scuffing, metal displacement, heat, discoloration, etc., however, woud be abnormal Most cylindrical and taperearoller bearings wilhhave wear Some highly loaded bearings have special crown, They which is uniform across raceway and roler surfaces. may have woar patterns which are concentrated more, toward the midcle of the roller and raceway surfaces.PERFORMING THE ANALYSIS [roll Maler= esd | Tes Maer es Soe ern Coleen Ce ee Nan Ma ce) eee tee CR ed eee enna ————— ee As discussed in the Applied Failure Analysis Wear and fracture facts should be obtained thro. “Management” module, following an organized approach careful visual analysis of failed bearings and related such as The Eight Steps of Applied Failure Analysis is components. These facts will act as “road signs” which the quickest and surest way to identify the correct root quide us to correct root causes of failures. cause of oach failure and to satisfy users. P Due tociose manufacturing contio's andhigh cleanness steels used, anti‘iction bearings are seldom the root cause of faiure. Therefore, when bearings fail, we shoud careiully separate causes trom results by identifying any abnormal ‘operating conditions which could have weekened or overloaded them and by classifying wear and fracture types.ABNORMAL CONDITIONS The most common types o! bearing damage {not in order of priority) due to abnormal operating conditions are: Contact stress fatigue (spalling) Paastic yielding Achesive wear Abrasive wear Corrosion Fretting Corrosion and Creep Electrical pitting and fluting Handling end installation damage Fractures Key points to remember when analyzing bearing failures are: 1, Most abnormal conditions will eventually cause high loads and/or tomporatures on receweys and rolling elements which will disturb the cil film, and cause abnormal wear, spalling and/or plastic yelding ang utimate failure 2, When one damage type occurs, it may generate other damage types.on the same pert surface. As such, at the time of investigation, there may be two or more types of damage present, with the secondary damage overiaid on top of the initial Gamage 3. Itis therefore desirable to investigate a failure in its earliest possible stages to most accurately determine the correct oo! cause. 4, We also need to be sure to consider all facts and possible conditions during our analysis.CONTACT STRESS FATIGUE Hoverioaded and there is enough cool ail to koop the beering from saftening, raceway and relling elements can develop Rolling Contact Stress Fatigue” ard spalling. Possible root causes are taperedralier bearings agjusted 100 loose, taperec roller beanngs adjusted to0 tight, shaft too big or housing toa smal. out of round housing or shaft, tapered housing Dore cr shaft, misalignment, low viscosity lube, excessive applied loads, ete | tapered toler beatings ar2 adjusted too loose weer and Rollers infoosebbearings can be spalled on the stra ends spaling will usually be on only a small portion of the irom misalgnment due to loss of adjustment, Cage stationary raceway. This bearing was soloose the rors windows can also have lipping (clled up burt) and “hour were not contacting i across its entire surtace lass" wear wincow slightly wider at the end than toware ‘he mde) If tapered rollor boarings are adjusted too tight, or are_—-The rollers and rotating raceway will also have an even subjected to too much thrust, the stationary raceway will wear/spall pattern indicating the cup and cone were usually have an even weer/spall pattern competely running too tightly during operation, around its cireumference and from face to face, Note: The cage windows n this example are lipped and worn in an “hour glass” shape, but this happened after the wear and spelling allowed the tight or highly thruste bearing to become loose. 40Menor) LiXee-Ce slo] ty © Two or More Spalled / Worn Load, Zone: Wear/spalling pattern on a face thatis installed in or on _If a bote or shatt is tapered the contact pattern may be the out of round part will show two or more foad zones. _—heavier where its tighter, Also, although not present on this example, fretting corrosion or fatigue cracking can ‘occur due te flexing where the rece is not adequately Supported. The well-defined (straicht) line at the edge of theheavier contact areamay indicate there was actually a step in this housing bore. Misaligned shafts or housings can cause wear/spall__ Low viscosity oil can result in more surface contact than patterns which wander from one face to the other of one normal and overload bearing surfaces causing rolling (or both ‘abeways. If allowed to run longer this raceway contact stress fatigue and spalling. The spall pattern may could have deveicped contact stress fatigue and spalling. have an axal oriontation (in line with the shaft)PLASTIC YIELDING Plastic yielding cen be caused by high temperatures and insufficient ol ilm to separate surfaces or it can be caused by heavy loads which permanently ceform Dearing materials at normal temperatures. Possible oot causes include ol! ‘quantity (not enough or too mush oil or grease), cil quality (too thick, too thin, ete.), high bearing loads, etc. Bearings which operate with no oll or grease usually ook hot and dry with little orno burned, cookad, or carbonized cilon them, They will also chow muc* plastic deformation from softening due to extreme heet. This differential pinion bearing tailed when a plug worked out of the axle housing, ‘The bearing cage and rolers also show signs of severe heat. Therollors are softened, Note the plastic yielding on them. The cage wes delormed allowing the rollers to skew, stop turning, skid. cause adhesive wear and generate even more heat. Gloser look at plastically deformed rollers, 2 ‘Other bearing raves inthesamesystem also showedhest Ascoloretion.Bearings can overheat and plastically deform due to Damage can also begin with glazing, discoloration and reasons other than no oil or grease ~ Reasons such as surface pitting (frosting). tube quality. high temperatures, high loads, rough surface finishes, ete. Damage can begin with rougheningand fine axial cracking as seen on the right of this racaway Alsoplastic yielding, featheringorlispingcaneccuronthe _Inater stages, plastic yielding, discoloration, and damp edges of cage windows. Usually the window will no! be cooked or carbonized oil can rosult if hgh temperatures worn to an “hour glass” shape, howover, unless —_are generated. adjustment 's lostPLASTIC YIELDING (Cont.) Dents all the way around raceweys at the same spacing _Dents inonly a portion of the raceway circumference with as the rollers, with grinding marks in the bottom of the undisturbed grinding marks and wear pattern in the depressions, could indicate one race was pressed into _bottom of the depressions indicate they were made by a position through the other race and rolling elernents. This shock foad after the bearing was in operation for some condition is known as “true brinelling’. time. This is also “true brineli Bruising is dents on the raceway and rolling elements if severe, bruising can progress into spalling. ‘caused by large particlesin the lube system such es metal from a gear or bearing failure. 14ADHESIVE WEAR Adnesive wear (without gross plastic detormation) can occur if thereis suiicent cool ol to control hoat, but rallers stop ct turning and start sliding for some reason. Cauises can include excessive cage wear or broken cages which ellow folie to skew and start skicding. Adhesive wear with enough ail supply to cool parts. ABRASIVE WEAR Abrasives such 2s dirt ar sand in iube systems can also cause bearing failures, Possible causes include debris built into the system, cracked housings o” hoses, dirt entry through failed sea's, contaminated grease. etc With abrasive wear, wo. need to determine the exact source of the abrasive material Use magnification to identity what type partice seused the. Weer. This will usually lead to the root cause. Fine abrasives in the oll usually result in a matte o satin finish on bearing raceway and rolling element surfaces. 18CORROSION Bearings removed froma machine can ust very rapidly tis therefore good practice to protect removed bearings witha, ‘grease or othar rust inhibitor until they are reinstalled. Corrosion can also oscur efter the bearing is installed. Many times {This will happen while the machine is shut down and produce 4 condition known as “static corrosion’ ar “black acd etching’ Atmospneric corrosion ((ust), Static corrosion or black acid etching, FRETTING CORROSION AND CREEP Fretting corrosion and “Creep” on |, D, or ©. D. bearing bore surfaces indicate they have moved relative shafts or housings. Possible causes include shafts that are too small, housing bores that are too large, raves thal are forced to move because rolling elements stop turning due to roller skewing, foreign material being lodged between the rating elements and the races. etc. Fretiing corrosion on O. D. bore surtace. ‘Creep’ - smooth, polished 0. D_ bore surface and rib fave where this race has been turning excessively in the housing iFreiting corrosion can also occur on raceway surfaoes where rlling elements have vibrated uncer load while the bearing was not rolating—aconditioncalled faisebrinelling’. A possiblecause could be vibration ween shipping machinery along distance by rail Rollerbearing outerracewith false brinelling. Marks ereat Notice in this magnified view, that the orginal grinding seme spacing 8 role's. Gringing and normal wear _marksare worn away where the rallar vibrated againstthe Patterns are disturbeddistinguishing faise brineling from raceway. This falsebbrineling, We now need to identily ‘rue brinelling, the source of vibration, ELECTRICAL PITTING AND FLUTING Thepassage of olectric current through beerings can damage them, Two major ways this can haopen are relatively arge currents from such sources es arc weiing in such a manner that current passes through the bearing while it is not rotating. or. relatvely small currents over a prolonged period of time while the bearing is rotating, Large currents ~ large localized pits. Lower two pits are Smallcurrents - Many small pits ~ sometimes olusteredin on the raceway. Upper matching pits are on one of the axial lines such as seen here called luting” rolers,HANDLING AND INSTALLATION DAMAGE 't bearings are dropped or otherw'se forcetully mishandled during removal or instalation, races can be dented, cracked, chipped, smeared, scuffed or otherwise damaged, This cone was struck by an externalforce on the rib face. This bearing cage was damaged by dropping the cone Note the impact damage with localized heat ciscoloration before installation. Damage such as this could crack ‘ror the sliding action of the impact load on the ri face cages, cause rolerstobind, skew, begin skidding and fail. surface ‘Skidding and adhesive surface damage (scuffing) can Roller bearing ribs can be chipped or broken by driving also be caused by drying bearings after cleaning by ne race in place through the other race and roling spinning them with compressed a. elements. Cracks inttiate on the inside o! the nbs or snap ring grooves:‘This bearing was dented by installing it with a punch or This same bearing was also removed with a chisel, Note chisel. If dents lke this are deep enough they can initiate the chisel marks in the housing which could cause high fatigue cracks or spalling Spots behind bearings, reducsd boaring clearances and result in overheating or spaling of surfaces. This cup is spalledin only aocelized area onits raceway. The ©.D, bore surface reveals to areas where the cup though not shown here, there is another similar area was not allowed to seat properly cue fo high spots in the about 120° around the cup's circumference, housing. These high spots reduced clearances and caused localized overload and spaliing on the raceway, 19HANDLING AND INSTALLATION DAMAGE (Cont.) This cup was cocked in ts bore during installation. Asthe _This portion of the cup eurface is 180° opposite the shall and cone were moved and adjusted into position, _ previous view, Note the brinell and smear marks are the raceway surface was smeared and brinalled due to concentrated more toward the back face of the cup. the heavy misaligned pressure. The smear and brinell Marks are concentrates towara the frort face on ins portion of the cup. The O.D. bore surface near the back iace of the cup also shows scuff marks on only one portion of its circumference indicating it was not properly seated and had to straighten itself during shaft and cone installation. 20.This cup _was loosened in its bore by the weld bead Cone removed by flame cutting, The shatt was damaged ‘method. The heat discoleration incicates there may have both by raising a igh spot on it and by curting a groove in been excessive heat transmitted fo the housing. i @ FRACTURES Fractures in anti-triction bearing races or rolling elements are usually due to heavy overload or misalignment } Allparts shown here and on ihe nexi page are froma3 The gear on the shaft andits mating gear show signs of winch with approximately 100 SMU. severe misalignment 2FRACTURES (Cont.) The outer race of the bearing on one end of the shaft is The rib on the cuter race of the bearing on the opposite fractured cue to overload caused by the prying action of end of the shaft has a brittle fracture indicating a severe the misaligned shaft shock load was applied Several of the rollers were spit in half, with ductile Tha heusingthat supportedone endof the shait fractured fractures in the softer core ard briitle fractures in the first, causing misalignment, The fracture looks brittle harder case material ingicating it could Fave been due to a shock load. However, fatigue fractures are often difficult to identify in cast iron, so abnormal siress raisers or cyclic overload, should also be investigated 22BEARING PROBLEMS Although itis possible. material, forming, machining, heat treat, grinding and assembly problems are extremely rare in anti-riction bearings. This is due to the high cleanliness bearing steels and the strict qualily control measures used in thelt manufacture. As a result, only one example of a manufacturing problem is presented here. This bearing falled after only a few hundred nours of operation. The cage is broken into many piecas, ‘The outer Face and balls lock relatively normal. Only ight The inner race shows much plastic deformation. Tho scuffing is observed which is from the cage pices —_ notch on the outer edge of the race was easily cut witha rubbing against the race and balls as the Gage was file. The hardness measured at less than Ac 20 breaking up. There is no evilence of excessive operating temperature (no heat discoloration) on the bearing or adjacent parts that Could have sottened the race. The inner race was therefore most prabably not properly heat treated. 23CONCLUDING THE ANALYSIS Identify the Root Cause of Failure Sn es caenae eso) PSURs cae Mary Every failure analysis should be pursued until the most probableroot causehas been fauna. Thisisbest done by following anorganized procodure euch as the Eight Steps of Applied Failure Analyss, thinking with the facts, and using the ‘Double ‘Check Question’ - ‘Is there any possibe way the othe! party could have caused this failure?” During theanalysis, we also ‘neec to investigate environmental facts such as heat, lcad, application, operation, and maintenance which often halp us determine the root cause of fallure. Df (CemuCdae eles ‘The job is not finished when wehave identified the most probable (oot cause ofa failure, We now need to "Get The Payolt through communicating with the party responsible for the failure, making prompt, prafessionalrepairsanc following upto inure the usor's short and long term problems are solved