| Titel | Short term heavy loads — one cause for premature bearing failures and white etching cracks |
| Autor | Kenred Stadler, Maria Andreen, Marica Ersson |
| Infos zum Autor | Dr. Kenred Stadler1, Maria Andreen2, Dr. Marica Ersson2 kenred.stadler@skf.com, maria.andreen@skf.com, marica.ersson@skf.com 1SKF GmbH, Gunnar-Wester-Str. 12, 97421 Schweinfurt, Germany 2SKF AB, Hornsgatan 1, 41550 Gothenburg, Sweden |
| Inhalt | Abstract Bearings in large industrial gearboxes or drive train applications, such as paper mills, crusher mill gearboxes, lifting gear drives or especially in wind turbine gearboxes are often subjected to a wide variety of operating conditions that may push them, under certain circumstances, beyond their limits. These conditions may cause bearing damages, such as cracks and spalling. Due to the appearance of the cracks these damages are known as white etching cracks (WEC) or sometimes called white structure flaking (WSF). In this paper, the potential negative effect of short time heavy loads or stresses with respect to the overall running time of a bearing will be shown. The related running conditions will lead to a reduced bearing performance compared to bearings that ran under normal conditions only. Furthermore, the bearings that ran at the beginning under heavy load conditions for a very short time do show extensive sub-surface initiated crack and WEC development. The study confirms that pure stresses are sufficient to generate sub-surface crack and WEC networks, without additional influence of lubricants, slip, electrical current or hydrogen. |
| Datum | 2017 |
