TITLE:
Effect of Carbonitriding on Endurance Life of Ball Bearing Produced from SAE 52100 Bearing Steels
AUTHORS:
Karthikeyan Rajan, Vinod Joshi, Arindam Ghosh
KEYWORDS:
Carbonitriding; Retained Austenite; Martensite; Endurance Test; Bearing Steel
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology,
Vol.3 No.3,
July
10,
2013
ABSTRACT: The present paper reports the unusual
enhancement of endurance life of ball bearings subjected to carbonitriding treatment. The microstructure was
characterized by scanning electron microscopy and correlated with hardness and
X-ray diffraction analysis. Endurance tests at 90% reliability revealed that
the carbonitrided bearings exhibit nearly ten times more life than the
non-carbonitrided bearings. This is attributed to synergic combination of
retained austenitic, fine
martensitic microstructure and ultrafine carbide precipitates obtained by
carbonitriding treatment.