Surface Observation of Large-scaled Flaking Failure on Flat PEEK Race in Water under Rolling Contact Fatigue of 1400 N and 1500 N.

Abstract In this research, we investigated the extent of the damage and the size of the large flaking holes on PEEK flat race tested in water under loads of 1400 N and 1500 N. Large flaking holes and cracks, after the first flaking layers separation were discussed using the position’s angles and depths from the cross section profiles. From the experimental results, all specimens were failed within 6.0 × 10 4 cycles under loads of 1400 N and 1500 N. The angles of damaged areas were larger than 100 degrees and the large flaking areas were concentrated near the center of the damage area. The maximum depths of the flaking holes ranged from about 200 μm to 450 μm and did not increase with increasing load. The difference in depths was very large and the angle locations were close. This means that the deep flaking holes did not originate from the same cracks and that multiple flaking holes occurred independently to cause the large-scaled flaking failures.