Researches on the processing method of ceramic bearing ball,the formation and propagation of defects in the manufacturing and the nondestructive evaluation(NDE) are summarized in this paper.The key for successful processing of high strength ceramic balls is to avoid producing related defects.Many investigations show that the material microstructures,defects as well as mechanical processing parameters influence the final surface quality significantly.Most of NDE technologies,such as radiation,ultrasonic,dye-penetration and laser scatter,have been studied for ceramic bearing ball surface inspection around the world.So far,the difficulties to develop the perfect NDE system for ceramic bearing balls,which are caused by the defect variety and surface unfolding,have not been overcome yet.
The antiwear and antifriction coating, which contains TiB2 and Nickel-coated graphite, has been obtained on stainless steel 9Cr18 by laser cladding. The processing method, microstructure, interface, microhardness, tribological properties and the forming mechanisms of the coating are analyzed. Results show that the microstructure of the clad coating are mainly long plume-like primary phase sosoloid Ni-Fe which form the matrix framework, while the in-situ anomalous synthetical TiC grains and ultrafine TiB2 grains uniformly disperse among the framework. The hardness and wear resistance of the coating has been greatly improved, which can be attributed to the reinforcement mechanism of TiC, TiB2, FeC, Fe3C and Cr 23C 6, etc. At the same time, the coating has friction-reducing ability.
To simplify the lubricating system for high-speed bearings and improve its reliability, grease lu-bricated high-speed hybrid ceramic bearings were theoretically and experimentally researched. Bearings with an outer race of 62 mm and eleven 9.525-mm balls were investigated. Traction coefficient and flash temperature between the bearing races and the balls were calculated and the results show that the traction coefficient of Si3N4 hybrid ceramic bearings is 74% that of the steel AISI 440B ones at 30 000 r/min and 1750 N, and the flash temperature of the hybrid bearings is 49% that of steel ones. Simulating the high-speed bearing rotational conditions, the grease lubricated hybrid ceramic ball bearings were tested and the results show that the power consumption of hybrid ceramic bearing lubricated by grease D at 24 000 r/min and axial load 1750 N is 80% that of steel ones.
