Effects of surface texturing on the tribological performance of the rolling bearing system

Surface texturing is one important means to improve the tribological performance of friction pairs. Meanwhile, the friction of the rolling bearing is related to the sliding behavior of the contact surfaces. At present, there are few research work on the textured rolling bearings. Therefore, it would be meaningful to study the potential of surface texturing in improving the performance of rolling bearing system. This paper developed one EHL (elasto-hydrodynamic lubrication) model for the rolling bearing system. In particular, the roller/outer ring conjunction was used as the research object. Effects of surface texturing on the tribological performance of the rolling bearing systems were studied under different bearing speeds. As a main conclusion, the local oil film thickness of the rolling bearing system can be increased after surface texturing. It seems that the textured surface can obtain a special benefit on the tribological properties of rolling bearing system.