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Since the 1946 issuance of the ASTM bearing steel specification, A295, the research and development of bearing steels has resulted in substantially improved fatigue and wear performance of rolling bearings across the entire industry. This is not only the case with higherend “advanced” materials and processes such as ceramic based technologies, but also with the more economic material selection of bearing quality steels. The bearing quality steels are characterized primarily, though not exclusively, by high hardness, very high static strength, fine grained microstructures, and low non-metallic inclusion content. Although developed to perform under cyclic rolling contact and slippage loads, these steels are also at times considered for usage in structural applications, such as shafting. When used in a structural manner, the design engineers are advised to consider unique fatigue related attributes of rolling bearing steels, such as the concept of “volume stressed”. The main point presented is that bearing grade steels in structural applications are expected to realize a wide range of cycles to failure in a group of seemingly identical parts. Also discussed are some related experiences with Virtual Product Development activities at INA (Schaeffler) USA with bearing/structural components using a combination of FE analysis with ABAQUS, fatigue assessment and validation testing.
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