Study of Wear in Subminiature Thrust Rolling Bearing

Promising results of wear tests performed on a novel rolling thrust micro-bearing with a diameter below 1 mm are presented. The applied custom measurement setup and the developed method of testing are described. A significantly longer life of the tested bearing was obtained (4.5 times) owing to a modification introduced in the mechanical structure of the bearing, which consisted of machining a groove across the raceway. A similar effect of wear reduction (3 times) was obtained while tilting one of the bearing discs.