Measurement for Lubricant Distribution in an Angular Contact Ball Bearing and Its Influence Investigation

Abstract

Oil lubrication is widely adopted in rolling bearings, the characteristics of which affect the oil film formation and friction state, and also the heat generation and dissipation characteristics. However, it is difficult to measure the internal lubrication of rolling bearings in practice, which is of great importance for lubrication and structure design. In this work, one measurement system for lubricant distribution was built and installed on a test rig to obtain original pictures of the lubricant in bearings. Grayscale images were obtained by picture processing to characterize the lubricant distribution, and the image pixels were evaluated for the characterization of lubricant volume. Finally, the measurement of the lubricant distribution in the angular ball bearing was carried out under different lubrication and cage groove conditions, and their influences were investigated. The results show that the lubricant distribution is affected by the oil jet nozzle angle, operating speed, and cage structure. The lubricant capacity among balls and the cage pocket in bearings gradually increased with the increase in the nozzle angle and the depth of the cage grooves, but decreased with the increasing operating speed. The experimental results are helpful to provide a basis for the structure and lubrication design of ball bearings.