Development of small endurance test apparatus for rolling element of ball bearings

Abstract

There are several test apparatuses that evaluate the lifetime of rolling element. But most of them are very large so it is difficult to evaluate the lifetime of rolling elements in laboratories of university. In this research, we developed a small endurance test apparatus for rolling elements, and endurance test of the ceramic rolling elements was carried out also as the endurance test of this apparatus. The produced apparatus is a much smaller compared with the conventional apparatus and the performance is the same level expect for the load. Moreover, as a result of experiment using this apparatus, it was found that there is no difference in lifetime between the two types of ceramic rolling elements prepared this time.