HIGH RESOLUTION MICROSCOPY AS TOOLS FOR SLIDING MICROBEARING RADIAL CLEARANCE AND GROOVES GEOMETRY MEASUREMENTS

摘要

This paper presents a new non-classical method of radial clearance measurements in slide micro-bearing with grooves. In this paper, the authors show that measurements of the radial clearance of micro-bearings cannot be determined with the required accuracy for hydrodynamic calculations and wear analysis just through subtraction from the internal diameter of the sleeve to the external diameter of the journal. Therefore, it is proposed to measure clearance directly by high-resolution microscopy using a metallographic sample of the cross-section of the assembly of sleeve and journal with the gap filled with glue. The measurements are performed using an optic microscope, a SEM, and an AFM. Analysis of lubrication shows that the ventilator or cooling fan micro-bearing has a hydrodynamic type of lubrication and the HDD micro-bearing has an elasto-hydrodynamic type of lubrication.