Rolling Wear of Silicon Nitride Bearing Materials

Abstract

Rolling-contact fatigue test methods were used to measure the wear performance of several silicon nitride materials. Sintered, hot pressed and hot isostatically pressed materials exhibited wear rates ranging over three orders of magnitude. Hot isostatically pressed materials had the lowest wear rates. Despite the disparity in wear performance, all materials tested had useful rolling-contact fatigue lives compared to steel. Fatigue life estimates, failure modes, and rolling wear performance for theses ceramics are compared to M-50 steel. This work highlights the rapid contact stress reductions that occur due to conformal wear in rolling-contact fatigue testing. Candidate bearing materials with unacceptably high wear rates may exhibit useful fatigue lives. Rolling contact bearing materials must possess useful wear and fatigue resistance. Proper performance screening of candidate bearing materials must describe the failure mode, wear rate, and the fatigue life. Guidelines for fatigue testing methods are proposed.