Analysis of damage to ceramic balls in hybrid rolling friction pairs

Most bearings are currently made primarily from steel, but they fail relatively quickly under high loads, temperatures, as well as abrasive, corrosive, chemical and other types of wear. Replacing steel balls with ceramic balls, i.e. creating hybrid bearings, in many cases allows achieving significantly higher performance and expanding the range of functionality of the devices in which they are used. For example, hybrid ball bearings take advantage of ceramic rolling elements with high quality surface treatment of steel rings, which allows for longer service life and better performance at high rotational speeds. As practice shows, hot-pressed silicon nitride (Si3N4) is the main material used to create hybrid bearings with ceramic rolling elements, although there is also interest in materials such as boron carbide (B4C), silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminium oxide (Al2O3). However, there are no publications devoted to the analysis of the causes of formation and accumulation of damage to ceramic balls in hybrid rolling friction pairs. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine the mechanism of formation and development of surface damage in ceramic balls of hybrid rolling friction pairs.