Page 4 - Dana Glacier Bearings Materials Brochure, designed and produced by Connell Marketing Associates, UK

Material Requirements

The working environment of a plain bearing requires a combination of material properties
which may be divided into soft and hard phase characteristics. These properties are often
conflicting and therefore the required balance will be dictated by the application.
The selection of a bearing material is best undertaken with the support of Glacier
Vandervell Europe’s Application Engineers whose extensive experience will ensure that
the optimum bearing material is specified.

Bearing Properties

Hard Phase Properties Soft Phase Properties Other Properties

Load Carrying Capacity Compatibility Corrosion Resistance
The bearing component requires The bearing material must Corrosion of the bearing surface
strength to transmit the load possess a resistance to welding or may result from sources such as
between the journal and the joining to its mating surface under degraded lubricants. The bearing
housing. conditions of rubbing and friction. material must be able to resist
chemical attack from these
The bearing material must resist Conformability sources.
not only plastic deformation under Conformability requires the
load but also fatigue damage due bearing to accommodate minor
to cyclic loads. misalign-ments or shape
irregularities of the shaft and
Wear Resistance housing. Lack of conformability
Thin oil film operation and inter- can cause localised overloading
mittent asperity contact between and inadequate oil films which
mating surfaces can cause may accelerate wear.
accelerated wear of the bearing
functional surface. The bearing Embeddability
must be able to resist wear The bearing functional surface must
throughout its service life so that be able to absorb small particles of
dimensional stability is foreign matter circulating with the
maintained. This is critical where lubricant. If debris is not embedded
engine designers demand very it may score the bearing and often
close control of the bearing the journal causing accelerated
clearance. wear, and/or seizure.

Cavitation Erosion Resistance
The bearing surface must be able
to withstand this type of damage
which can arise when a localised
rapid fall in oil pressure results in
the formation of vapour bubbles.
The subsequent implosion of
these bubbles causes
concentrated impact loadings at
the bearing surface.

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