Bearing Materials

(Sliding Contact Bearings)

 Desirable Properties of Bearing Materials
When metal to metal contact occurs bearing material
Surface Hardness should not be damaged
It should not stick or weld to the journal surface

High Compressive To Withstand Pressures without distortion of contact

surfaces
Strength
In certain applications like Crank shaft , Connecting rod
Endurance Strength bearings are subjected to fatigue Stresses and should
have good ES to avoid failure due to pitting

conformability
The bearing should have ability to yield and should
adopt according to shape of the journal.
The dirt particles in lubricant tried to jam in the

Embeddability clearance space and if hard may cut scratches on the

surfaces of journal and bearing. To avoid further
trouble the bearing material should be soft.
Corrosion In engine bearings, the excessive temperature causes
oxidation of lubricant oils.
Resistance
Most popular Bearing Materials
Babbitt or White Metal
BABBIT

Lead Babbit Tin Babbit

Application:
Used in the bearings in the form of
Strip or thin lining about 0.5 mm thick
Applied to the steel shells as shown in
Figure
Babbit Material
Advantages:
Excellent conformability
Excellent Embeddability
Limitations:
High cost and shortage of tin
Babbits are inherently weak and strength decreases
rapidly with increase in temperature.
Poor fatigue strength.
White metals
There are 10 grades of white metals which are used for
typical applications
Grade 90, 84, 75,69, 60, 20, 10, 6, 5

Other materials :
Bronze is cheaper as compared to the babbit, stronger
and can with stand high pressures.
copper- lead (70% Cu- 30% Pb) used in engine bearings
like as a liners
Aluminum alloys, and plastics as a bearing materials.
Rolling contact Bearing
Types of bearings based on rolling element:

Ball Bearing Cylindrical Roller Bearing

Tapper Bearing Needle Bearing

Types of bearings based on Direction of Loading:

Radial Bearing
Thrust Bearing
Selection of Bearing- Type:

--- For low and Medium radial loads

---For High radial loads

For both Radial and
Thrust

In case of misalignment b/w the shaft axis and

housing if exist.
Selection of Bearing- Type:
Depends on the permissible speed of the shaft depends
upon the temperature rise in the bear

Rigidity also controls the selection of bearing in this case

double cylindrical or Tapper bearings are required
Noise also is one of the criteria in selection of bearing in
this case deep groove ball bearings are preferred.

Selection of Bearing Life: To select the proper size of the

bearing it is necessary to specify the life of the bearing for a
given application.
Design for cyclic loads and Speeds
In certain applications bearings are subjected to
cyclic loads and speeds for this we have to calculate
dynamic load capacity of a bearing.

Problems will be given on these 3 design considerations.