Bearing steels in the 21st century

摘要

Oxygen content of bearing steel will be reduced to below 3 ppm in the year 2000 if current trend for the reduction of oxygen in the steel continues. As a result, size of oxide inclusions will become smaller and the fatigue life will be doubled. From the viewpoint of life prediction, cleanliness evaluation methods currently used are not effective. Inclusion Rating Method by Statistics of Extreme is useful for both cleanliness evaluation and fatigue life prediction. Bearings made of suitably heat treated carbon steels or low alloy steels, which possess equivalent fatigue properties to bearing steels, will increase owing to the requirement for lower cost and better formability.