What Does Rolling Bearing Creep Mean?

What is Bearing Creep?

Bearing creep refers to the relative sliding between the mating surfaces when there is a gap between the mating surfaces of the bearing. The mating surface where creep occurs shows a mirror bright or dark surface, and sometimes it is also caused by jamming and wear.

Rolling bearing creep mainly includes inner ring creep and outer ring creep.

Creep of the inner ring of rolling bearing means that the inner ring of the bearing and the axle are fixed by interference fit to prevent the inner ring from sliding relative to the axle. However, once the appropriate amount of interference cannot be maintained, there will be a gap between the mating surface of the inner ring and the axle, and the inner ring will slide relative to the axle. This phenomenon is called inner ring creep.

The creep of the outer ring of the rolling bearing refers to the slow rotation of the outer ring relative to the bearing seat during the use of the rolling bearing, which is called the creep of the outer ring. Creep of the outer ring will cause wear of the bearing housing or the outer ring and wear particles into the bearing, resulting in failure of the bearing.

Factors affecting creep:

1. Temperature, as the temperature rises, the steady-state creep rate increases.
2. Stress, the steady-state creep rate increases with the increase of stress.
3. The influence of microstructure, creep is a performance index that is more sensitive to microstructure. The porosity, grain size, etc. of the glass all have a great influence on the creep properties.