Join Date: Dec 2007

Posts: 153
barfnagler
Good Answers: 3 07/02/2008 12:03 AM

the idea of a too tight fit is the best scenario. but take a look at a few other things as well

the id of the race is it the same as the od oof the shaft?

was the shaft smoothed down with a whets stone before the bearing was set in place /

was the shaft or the bearing innner ring prelubed before the bearing was mounted?

what angle was the shaft end beveled at before the bearing was remounted?

after your cleaned up the shaft and before you returned it to the work site was it tested for bend using a dial indicator?

did you check shaft alignments?

a few years ago the problem of the rollers cages kept coming up like that so we looked at how the bearings were being
mounted on the shafts of the crushers, turns out the quick way was being used.

whats the quick way? take a piece of schedule 60 pipe with a id. somewhere near outside race of the bearing, put the bearing at
the end of the shaft then hammer the bearing on using the pipe as a driving flange. guaranteed race fractures.

'da ber

Guru

Re: ball bearings inner race crack

Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Mid-West USA The Mechanic In reply to
Posts: 502 07/02/2008 7:33 AM
Good Answers: 28
Applying pressure to the outer race while installing on a shaft?

Ouch!

Re: ball bearings inner race crack

Anonymous Poster
07/02/2008 2:17 AM

My first thought is that the shaft is heating up in operation. The expansion of which does not match that of the inner race. AS
mentioned elsewhere the fit of shaft to bearing (race) is very important. If the shaft gets hot it will always expand more than the
bearing as the gap/oxice layer between the two prevents total heat transfer between the two.

Some people interference fit the two, that is they have .003 inch or less gap between shaft and bearing to lock the bearing in
place. This is bad practice; if you can't use a collar (which can be shrunk fit over the shaft), use bearings with key locks or grub
screws. You might consider whether it actually needs locking in place on the shaft at all.

Finally make sure there is no end loading on the bearing, that is the inner and outer races are out of alignment as this will crack
one or other of teh races and wear the ball/rollers.

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Guru
Re: ball bearings inner race crack
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Germany 49° 26' N, RHABE
7° 46' O
Posts: 1952 07/02/2008 6:27 AM
Good Answers: 109
Hi,

if the ring is cracked axially then the above explanations are very likely, if the bearing is thermally expanded it is easy to over-
stress the ring.

But there may have been an unintended notch on the ring that was causing the start of the crack: notch sensitivity in hardened
chromium-steel is significant. If you want to be sure then post a good foto of the cracked surface.

And may be the hardening and tempering was not done properly or there was a hard (carbide) inclusion.

Highest quality ballbearings are made from twice CEVM steel (consumable electrode vacuum melted) that removes the soft
inclusions as sulfides. Then filtered (liquid steel through ceramic sieves of 1mm pore size) to remove the bigger sized carbide
inclusions. Aircraft, spacecraft, machine-tools get these bearings that are much too expensive for ordinary use.)

And there is the possibility that the crack was circumferential , I saw this in a situation of excessive overload in a planetary gear
where the designers had forgotten about misalignment and about recirculating power in the planetary gear being higher than
input power.

RHABE

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Power-User
Re: ball bearings inner race crack
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 184 jrpeck
Good Answers: 3
07/02/2008 7:57 AM

On GM and Ford cars (at least the once I've worked on) the shaft and the race are tapered. When you install the bearing and
then the brake rotor, then the outer bearings a washer and nut goes on last. You tighten them and spin the wheel then tighten

Active Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 17
Good Answers: 1
Guru
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Spring, Texas
Posts: 3410
Good Answers: 148
Active Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2008
Posts: 17
Good Answers: 1
Guru
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Spring, Texas
Posts: 3410
Good Answers: 148
and spin until you feel resistance and then back the nut off a little and install the cotter pin. However, with the straight bores you
just tighten everything up and you are done.
Having said all that. I someone was use to installing the straight bore bearings and just tightened everything up and did not seat
the bearings on a tapered shaft it would be easy for them to bind and break.
Re: ball bearings inner race crack
nitin47
07/02/2008 9:24 AM
Some of the major reasons can be -
- shaft dia. is much larger than the tolerance for press fit i.e., n6 or p6 or s6.
- shaft alignment is not correct. If it is ball bearing, it can take misalignment upto about 2.5 degrees.
- shaft is getting heated.
- finally, does it crack with another new bearing also? If no then the earlier bearing may be spurious / duplicate.
Re: ball bearings inner race crack
Rorschach
07/02/2008 9:48 AM
The one thing that nobody appears to have addressed are environmental factors. Chlorides, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen ions
generated by corrosion, or pitting combined with fatigue all could have played a role. No mention of the environment this
bearing operated in or any environmental upsets it may have experienced were noted. I assure you, toss a bearing into a
concentrated hydrochloric acid bath and watch how long before it shatters from it's own internal stresses and you'll be
convinced.
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Re: ball bearings inner race crack
nitin47 In reply to
07/02/2008 3:54 PM
Evironment is one of the factors. But,if bearing is used in such corrosive environment then the shaft, key, rotor etc. will also get
corroded, probably slightly before bearing race.
Re: ball bearings inner race crack
Rorschach #
In reply to
07/02/2008 4:01 PM
Not necessarily, heat treating is a huge factor in the speed of attack. The shaft/key/rotor are probably not hardened to around
60-70 HRc the way the bearing race likely was. Additionally, the bearing race likely has a much lower ductility which means that
if there was a corrosion pit/flaw that formed, it would succumb to fatigue far faster than the rest of the assembly. Bearings are
always going to be the weak corrosion link for that reason.
__________________
Who is John Galt?
Re: ball bearings inner race crack
Anonymous Poster #
07/03/2008 10:46 AM
Question with proofs: What are some of the determining factors >faults< that will >could< cause the inner race of a ball bearing
>assembly< to crack on a rotor >during service<?
Preliminary response:
Question is incomplete:
Crack the first time?
Crack repeatedly with (each) replacement bearing assembly?
Nature of crack is unstated?
Radial crack? Complete or incomplete?
Transverse crack? Complete or incomplete?
Single crack? Multiple cracks?
ID or OD?
Penetrating or superficial?
Accompanied with tempering/burnishing/burning?
Thank you.
Re: ball bearings inner race crack
 Anonymous Poster #

07/03/2008 11:02 AM

Determining "factor" is most likely accelerated fatigue due to heat. Could be due to "rotor" axle out of true...imparting
continuous twisting moments on race due to precession-like oscillations in rotor axle.

(Note: by "determining" factor is meant [must be meant] the very last stress immediately preceding the crack event...the
penultimate failure event backwards from which can be determined a failure mode sequence leading to the crack. Everything
prior to that last instantaneous fault before crack failure would be deemed as predeterminant . . . as being likely in some degree
to cause the crack eventually, but not determinantly so.)

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Comments rated to be Good Answers:

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#1 "Re: ball bearings inner race crack" by Ing. Robert Forbus on 06/30/2008 11:23 PM (score 2)

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#3 "Re: ball bearings inner race crack" by Anonymous Poster on 07/02/2008 2:17 AM (score 1)
#4 "Re: ball bearings inner race crack" by RHABE on 07/02/2008 6:27 AM (score 1)

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Anonymous Poster (4); barfnagler (1); Ing. Robert Forbus (1); jrpeck (1); nitin47 (2); RHABE (1); Rorschach (2); The Mechanic (1)

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