Manufacturing and Evaluation of Multi-Material Axial-Bearing Washers by Tailored Forming

Abstract

Components subject to rolling contact fatigue, such as gears and rolling bearings, are among the fundamental machine elements in mechanical and vehicle engineering. Rolling bearings are generally not designed to be fatigue-resistant, as the necessary oversizing is not technically and economically marketable. In order to improve the load-bearing capacity, resource efficiency and application possibilities of rolling bearings and other possible multi-material solid components, a new process chain was developed at Leibniz University Hannover as a part of the Collaborative Research Centre 1153 “Tailored Forming”. Semi-finished products, already joined before the forming process, are used here to allow a further optimisation of joint quality by forming and finishing. In this paper, a plasma-powder-deposition welding process is presented, which enables precise material deposition and control of the welding depth. For this study, bearing washers (serving as rolling bearing raceways) of a cylindrical roller thrust bearing, similar to type 81212 with a multi-layer structure, were manufactured. A previously non-weldable high-performance material, steel AISI 5140, was used as the cladding layer. Depending on the degree of forming, grain-refinement within the welded material was achieved by thermo-mechanical treatment of the joining zone during the forming process. This grain-refinements lead to an improvement of the mechanical properties and thus, to a higher lifetime for washers of an axial cylindrical roller bearing, which were examined as an exemplary component on a fatigue test bench. To evaluate the bearing washers, the results of the bearing tests were compared with industrial bearings and deposition welded axial-bearing washers without subsequent forming. In addition, the bearing washers were analysed micro-tribologically and by scanning acoustic microscopy both after welding and after the forming process. Nano-scratch tests were carried out on the bearing washers to analyse the layer properties. Together with the results of additional microscopic images of the surface and cross-sections, the causes of failure due to fatigue and wear were identified.

Studies on the Influence of Residual Stresses on the Fatigue Life of Rolling Bearings in Dependence on the Production Processes

“…This allows for the local deposition of high strength steel, which serves as the raceway for a rolling element bearing and covers the fatigue life-determining material volume regarding rolling contact fatigue, c.f. (Behrens et al, 2019). The base material allows for basic requirements regarding structural load-bearing capacity, thus serving as a support structure and for the mechanical connection to other components.…”

Investigations on Tailored Forming of AISI 52100 as Rolling Bearing Raceway

“…The aim was to ensure an efficient use of resources. Behrens et al [14] welded bearing washers of AISI 1022M with the alloyed steel AISI 5140. They researched the grain refinement depending on the degree of forming and investigated the wear resistance of the specimen.…”

Design, Setup, and Evaluation of a Compensation System for the Light Deflection Effect Occurring When Measuring Wrought-Hot Objects Using Optical Triangulation Methods

“…The increasing technical and economical requirements for components have led to mono material bulk metal components reaching the limits of their performance due to the material used. To extend those limits, the use of hybrid components is the subject of current research [1,2]. A high technological potential lays in hybrid bulk metal components that are first joined and then further processed.…”