Effect of a Shrink Fitter on Load-Carrying Capasity of a Ceramic Bearing at Elevated Temperature

When the ceramic bearing is used under the high temperature environment, the problem occurs. An interference changes because the coefficient of thermal expansion is greatly different between the steel and the ceramic. It is thought that this causes the adverse effect for a load carrying capacity of the ceramic bearing. In this paper, we have applied the shrink fitter to an assembly of the ceramic bearing to prevent the change in the interference. The outer races were broken at the load of 4410N when the shrink fitter was not used. With the shrink fitter the load carrying capacity was 8330N. Moreover, the stresses acting in the outer race of the ceramic bearing, due to the space between the outer race and the bearing, were analyzed by FEM