Yasunaga Mitsuya

Professor,
Department of Electronic-
Mechanical Engineering,
Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chil<usa-I<u,
Nagoya 464-01, Japan
Hidekazu Sawai
Master Engineer,
Nagoya Worl<s,
Mitsubishi Electric Corp.,
1-14 Yada-minami 5-Chome, Higasht-I<u,
Nagoya 461, Japan
Masaki Shimizu
Aichl Prefectural Office,
Sannomaru 3-chome, Naka-ku,
Nagoya 460, Japan
Yasushi Aono
Engineer,
Product Developnnent Department,
Olympus Optical Co. Ltd.,
2951 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji,
Tokyo 192, Japan
Damping in Vibration Transfer
Througli Deep-Groove
Ball Bearings
Damping characteristics in vibration transfer through deep-groove ball bearings
were measured precisely using a single ball bearing (equivalent to the 6200 type)
and the compliance transfer function resulting from the impulses applied to the
bearing. To eliminate uncertainties caused by bearing assembly and preloading, a
monolithic-type ball bearing was specially fabricated by unifying its inner ring with
a shaft, and its outer ring with a rotor. This structure enables preloading without the
need for any solid contact using an externally pressurized air bearing. Experimental
damping ratios were found to range from two to four percent and damping coefficients
0.15-0.35 Ns/mm. Damping was found to decrease with an increasing preload, and
to be larger for a larger clearance and for a larger ball number. The decreases in
damping resulting from superimposing the tilting mode vibration upon the lateral
mode and from an increasing clearance indicated more ball rolling motion rather
than slipping motion to be the cause of decreased damping. Also, the bearing rotation
effect is found to be small. Addition of grease hardly provided any additional damping
during rotation.

1 Introduction shaft. The experimental results demonstrated that the preload

Minimizing vibration continues to be a primary concern in
data storage systems that employ a magnetic disk, an optical
disk, or a video cassette recorder to foster an increase in bit
density and in head-positioning accuracy. In designing these
systems, large-scale vibration analyses using the finite element
method in conjunction with modal analysis are commonly ap-
plied to estimate the vibration characteristics of the mechanical
structures. All of these systems utilize highly accurate ball bear-
ings for supporting the disk spindle, swing positioner or rotating
head drum. Since the damping characteristics of the bearings
have not been clarified quantitatively, there does not appear to
be any other means for ascertaining the damping value in such
vibration analyses.
To date, a large body of literature deals with friction loss
generated by the rotation of rolling contact bearings, and an
empirical equation for estimating the value of rotational loss is
described in bearing brochures. Few reports have focused on the
damping of lateral mode vibration transferred through rolling
contact bearings. In this regard, cylindrical roller and tapered
roller bearings for machine tool use have mainly been selected
thus far for the study on the damping involved in the vibration
transfer. By increasing the preload, it was found that the damp-
ing ratio in the tilting mode vibration increased (Elsermans et
al., 1976), while that in the lateral mode vibration decreased
(Leibensperger, 1972 and Shoda, 1981). As for the ball bear-
ings, there were two experimental reports; one providing the
results from 6206 and 7206 bearings (inner diameter: 30 mm)
for machine tool use (Tsutsumi et al., 1980), and the other
from 6903 (17 mm) and 6905 (25 mm) bearings for magnetic
disk spindle use (Kakizaki, 1986).
The study by Tsutsumi (1980) dealt with the damping in the
tilting mode generated by the bending motion of a vibrating
Contributed by the Tribology Division of THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANI-
CAL ENGINEERS. Manuscript received by the Tribology Division April 15, 1996;
revised manuscript received March 31, 1997. Associate Technical Editor:
A. Soom.
only slightly affected the damping and that the damping tended
to increase with the increase in the bearing rotational speed.
Kakizaki (1986) measured the damping subject to lateral mode
vibration only using a simple bearing unit, which clarified that
the damping decreased with increasing preload. The damping
ratio measured around one percent at a preload ranging 2 0 0 -
1000 N in the former experiments, while it was five to fifteen
percent at the preload ranging of 20-60 N in the latter experi-
ments.
For reference, damping at the sliding contact was recently
measured using a rider on a rotating cylinder having a diameter
of 15 cm subject to preloading of 160-500 N (Polycarpou
and Soom, 1995). The measured value ranged from 12 to 21
percent.
Two principal difficulties arose in quantifying the damping
transferred through rolling contact bearings. First was the inabil-
ity to assemble a vibration transfer system using only a single
bearing, in which the bearing must be incorporated into a hous-
ing. This makes it difficuh to measure the vibration inherent to
the bearing by extracting it from the coupled vibration arising
from the housing/bearing structure because stiffness at the ball-
race contact is too rigid to separate the structure completely at
the point of contact. Second, in addition to the fact that rolling
and sliding motions arise simultaneously at the contact point,
many factors related to damping are difficult to analytically
formulate, such as differential friction, spinning friction and
friction owing to the cage. This also makes it difficult to predict
the damping characteristics from a theoretical point of view.
If the vibration transferred through the bearing is measured
on the housing as coupled vibration, damping owing to the
structure is superimposed upon the measured value. Specifi-
cally, if the preload is designed to be adjustable, the additional
preload mechanism and the play which is required to fit the
bearing to the shaft considerably affect the damping. Moreover,
reducing the thickness of the magnetic disk drive or optical disk
drive becomes a greater concern. The shorter the span between
bearings supporting the disk spindle, the thinner the drives can

Journal of Tribology Copyright © 1998 by ASME JULY 1998, Vol. 120 / 413

Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms

 Table 1 Experimental parameters

Bearing classification Deep-groove ball bearing

Bearing type 6200
Mio No. of specimens 2
for each clearance
Bearing clearance, C 5,15,30 fim
No. of balls, n 8 (standard), 4
Grease Without,
Inner ring -^ JUTf Outer ring «" With (20 % grease enclosed)
(Shaft) Grease characteristics
Consistency 210
Thickener Sodium soap
Base oil type Naphthenic-type mineral oil
C ^ Base oil viscosity 97 cSt (40°)
Preload, F^ 10- 110 N (1 - 11 kgf)
Rotational speed, A^ 0 - 3000 rpm
Fig. 1 Experimental ball bearing formed by unifying inner ring with shaft
and outer ring with rotor

moving every other ball of the eight in the standard specifica-

be made. For this kind of bearing assembly, two vibration
modes, the lateral and tilting, are apt to arise simultaneously.
The superimposition of the tilting mode upon the lateral mode
was not involved in the current experimental conditions.
The purpose of the present paper is thus to present the precise
measurement of the damping inherent in the bearing itself by
using specially fabricated monolithic-type ball bearings. The
particular features of the experimental apparatus involves two
aspects. First is the elimination of the inexpedient effects due
to fitting the bearing to the housing, with not only the inner
ring and the shaft but also the outer ring and the rotor being
fabricated in a monolithic structure that requires no fitting. Sec-
ond is the elimination of the unnecessary effects owing to the
preload mechanism, in which a preload is exerted on the rotor
with no need for solid contact using a hydrostatic air bearing.
Using this experimental apparatus, the stiffness and the damp-
ing of a single bearing were first obtained by employing the
compliance transfer function generated from impulse ham-
mering the bearing and curve fitting the response. Selected as
bearing parameters were bearing clearance, the number of balls
per bearing and lubrication (with/without grease), while cho-
sen as operating parameters were preload and rotational speed.
Due to the asymmetric structure of the single bearing subject
to preloading in the axial direction, the present experiments
exhibit coupled vibration in the lateral and tilting modes. Mea-
sured values for practical use range from two to four percent
as the damping ratio and 0.15-0.35 Ns/mm as the damping
coefficient. Since in practical application the lateral and tilting
modes are mostly coupled, the measured damping values must
provide data useful for designing and predicting the perfor-
mance of these kinds of storage systems.
tion. In addition, two lubrication conditions were used: with
and without grease.
The experimental apparatus is schematically shown in Fig.
2. The shaft (inner ring) was fixed at its ends by bolt clamping
to the housing. The housing was fabricated to be basically a
cylindrical shape to enhance rigidity, and fitted with two win-
dows for applying impulses and measuring displacement. By
pushing the load cell to the externally pressurized thrust bearing,
the preload can be exerted on the experimental bearing through
the rotor (outer ring) which serves as the thrust plate of the air
bearing.
The air bearing specifications are: self-restriction type with
12 plane feedholes annularly and equally spaced in double rows,
and a supply pressure of 0.2 MPa. The clearance between the
rotor and thrust bearing is estimated to be 80 fim when a maxi-
mum preload of 100 N is applied. The air bearing and ball
bearing are fully separated in the lateral mode, while they are
coupled in series in the axial mode. Since the coupling does
not constitute any solid contact, however, the coupling effect
is considered to be much smaller compared with the previous
method in which the preload is exerted using a spring washer.
Once the load cell was pressed with a feed screw to attain a
prescribed preload, the air bearing was fastened with stoppers
from the three directions indicated. The rotor was driven by a
DC motor via a very flexible belt.
For the nonrotation experiments, the rotor was impacted by
a small hammer to initiate vibration. Impacting the rotor is
advantageous in the fact that much smaller noise levels involved
in the response compared with impacting the shaft. The impact
was carefully applied to produce an equal force for every experi-
ment (a peak value of around 35 N). Moreover, the response

2 Experimental Apparatus and Procedure

Housing
The experimental bearing size was selected to be a deep-
groove number 6200 ball bearing (inner diameter: 10 mm), the
type of which is being used in medium-sized magnetic disk
storage devices. Usually, bearings are used in pairs to permit
preloading with a spring, one is mounted on a shaft or in a
housing with a clearance fit and the other in a interference
fit. In the present study, however, specially fabricated bearings
featuring a monolithic structure as illustrated in Fig. 1 were
utilized to eliminate the uncertainties caused by the preloading stopper I
mechanism and the fitting.
The special features of this bearing are that its inner ring and
shaft as well as its outer ring and rotor are respectively unified,
and the rotor lower surface serves as the thrust plate enabling Stopper 2
preloading with no need for solid contact using an externally
pressurized thrust air bearing.
Load cell
The experimental parameters are listed in Table 1. The bear-
ing clearance ranges 5, 15, and 30 /j,m. The number of balls
Axia! force
per bearing is either eight or four, that is, equivalent to the
standard specification and reduced specification formed by re- Fig. 2 Schematic diagram of experimental apparatus

414 / Vol. 120, JULY 1998 Transactions of the ASME

Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms

 (a) Preload F„ = 10 N n = 8
— : Experimental C = 5yum
: Curve fitting Without grease

i
Time, t ms
(a) Radial displacement, 8r

Time, t ms Frequency, / kHz

(b) Axial displacement, S^
Fig. 4 Compliance transfer functions (number of balls: n = 8, clearance:
Fig. 3 Transient response waveforms C = 5 fim, without grease)

characteristics were determined through averaging four sets of tics, revealing that the effect of coupling with the air bearing
experimental data. For the rotation experiments, wherein the is negligible.
rotor ran up to 3000 rpm, the shaft was impacted instead. To Typical examples of the measured compliance transfer func-
suppress the additional noise caused by rotation, the sets of tions with preloading as a parameter are demonstrated in Fig.
experimental data to be averaged were increased to 16. 4 for the without-grease case and in Fig. 5 for the with-grease
Using the capacitance displacement sensors, responses to the case. The solid curves designate the experimental results, indi-
impulses were measured at the two points of the outer circum- cating a significant resonance phenomenon caused by the ball
ference and the upper surface of the rotor, which constituted bearing. Although some minute resonances also appear if ob-
the lateral displacement and the tilt of the rotor. The compliance served in detail, the curves are found to be fairly smooth in the
transfer function was then obtained by using the FFT analyzer. proximity of the resonance peak. However, the resonance peak
Fitting the curve to the transfer function enabled the natural occasionally splits into two similar twin peaks just at the top
frequency,/, and damping ratio, ^, to be identified. All experi- as shown in Fig. 5 ( a ) , the reason for which is not clear.
ments were performed at a room temperature ranging from 10 The dotted curves represent the curve fitting results assuming
to 15°C. the one-degree-of-freedom system, demonstrating good accor-
dance with the experimental results. For the curve fitting, the
one-degree-of-freedom system was also applied even to the case
3 Experimental Characteristics of Transfer Func-
of the twin peaks, although this may have reduced the accuracy.
tion It is evident from these figures that when the preload increases,
Even if a pure lateral load is exerted on a single bearing the resonance frequency, / , increases, while the damping ratio,
subject to a preload, rotor tilt is induced owing to the asymmet- ^, decreases, and that the grease serves to increase the damping.
ric structure formed by the preload pressing the balls to side
surface of the raceway. Consequently, lateral and tilt displace-
ments couple with each other. The responses measured using
two sensors located as noted in Fig. 2 are demonstrated in (a) Preload F„ = ION
: Experimental C = 30^m
Fig. 3. ; Curve fitting With grease
Figure 3(a) exemplifies the lateral mode vibration while Fig.
3(b) shows the tilting mode vibration wherein the amplitude
value is transformed from the measurement point to the ball
rr^^V.-Y'i-v-
position. The lateral mode exhibits a typical damping vibration
for the one-degree-of-freedom system. In contrast, the tilting (b) Preload Fa = 40 N
mode seems to involve high-frequency components. If observed
in detail, the vibration seems to stop instantaneously around
the vibration center, which rather resembles the vibration type
arising from tolerant fittings. The lateral displacement is ob-
served to be dominant, being more than 10 times larger than
the tilting one. (c) Preload F^ = lOON
The tilting mode vibration constitutes the change in air bear-
ing clearance caused by the pitching motion of the rotor, which
may affect the transfer function. To estimate the effects of the
air bearing on the transfer function, the restoring moment of
the air bearing was changed by varying the air supplying the
feedholes from the inner side only to the outer side only between
Frequency, / kHz
double annular rows, and also the operating clearance of the air
bearing was altered by changing the air supplying pressure. Fig. 5 Compliance transfer functions (number of balls: n = 8, clearance:
These changes were not found to affect the response characteris- C = 5 (im, with grease)

Journal of Tribology JULY 1998, Vol. 120 / 415

Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms

 Using the curve fitting results, / and C, were obtained, and then
stiffness, k, and damping coefficient, c,., were calculated.
The ball circumferential location may affect the response,
especially for the case of the lower ball number. Since the
measured damping values exhibited large scattering by them-
selves, the difference depending on the ball location was not
observed to be distinguishable in such a large experimental
data variation. Accordingly, the ball location was not identified
throughout all experiments.
4 Comparison Between Measured and Calculated
Radial Stiffnesses
To date, there seems to be little or no data on the stiffness
and damping measured under the condition of a single bearing
being subjected to preloading. We thus compared the radial
stiffnesses between those obtained experimentally and those
calculated. If the lateral mode is coupled with the tilting mode,
vibration energy can be distributed to the tilting mode. This
causes a reduction in the resonance frequency compared with
that generated from the pure lateral mode. Consequently, de-
termining the radial stiffness, k^, by using the rotor mass, m,
and the measured resonance frequency, / , is unreasonable. Let-
ting the lateral displacement be x and the tilt be d as shown in
Fig. 6 and considering that 6 is sufficiently small, the vibration
energy can therefore be approximated as
kie^ + mx^ \Kx^
where / denotes the transverse moment of the rotor inertia. Tilt
of the rotor, 6, is mainly formed by balls rolling or sliding up
and down on the raceway surface with a slope angle of a as
shown in Fig. 6{b), and written as
= — tan a
where rj indicates the radius of the ball location and a =
tan"'(6al6r), the contact angle (6^,6^: radial and axial displace-
ments of the balls). The left-hand side of Eq. (1) is then trans-
formed into
1 The calculation results revealed that a useful relationship was
(me, -I- m)x^
iVrl + m ]x
where m,,, represents the pseudo-increase in mass caused by the
accompanying tilfing mode vibration. From the above consider-
ation, bearing radial stiffness is thus obtained from the measured
resonance frequency as
k,. = (27r/)'(m + m„)
Naturally, it is difficult to control accurately the tilt to be a
constant value for all experiments by using manual impact.
Even so, the measured 9 values were not as scattered as might
(b) Lareral loading under axial load
(•a) Axial loading
Fig. 6 Ball-raceway contact
416 / Vol. 120, JULY 1998
Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms
Table 2 Equivalent mass owing to Inclined mode vibration
Bearing clearance Equivalent mass (kg)
C //m n = 8 n = 4
5 0.027 0.017
(1.24x10-=*°) (1.03x10-^°)
15 0.043 0.025
(1.48x10-^°) (1.19x10-'°)
30 0.067 0.038
(1.96x10-^°) (1.54x10-'°)
Mass of outer ring: m = 0.76 kg
Moment of inertia of outer ring: / = 714kgmm^
be expected. Accordingly, an averaged value of 6 was used to
calculate the equivalent mass, m^^, which was regarded as a
corrected mass for the pertinent experimental bearing. Here, the
results are listed in Table 2, demonstrating that the corrected
masses are so small that they cannot significantly affect the
results.
Conversely, the stiffness can be obtained theoretically from
the relationship between contact load and displacement, being
governed by the Hertzian contact theory (Harris, 1984). For
simplicity, only the essence of the calculation methodology will
be elucidated here.
The relationships between radial load, F,., axial load, F„ or
moment, M, and radial displacement, 5,, axial displacement, 6,,
(1) or tilt angular displacement, 6, are given as
F, = f(S,, 6,, 9)
Fa = 8{6r, 6a, 9)
M = h(6„ Sa, 6) (5)
Here,/, g, and h are functions incurring strong nonlinearity.
(2) For solving Eq. (5), a simple iterative solution method was
applied using the increment method and Lagrange's interpola-
tion as follows. Initially, arbitrary values of 6a, 6, and F^ were
given to calculate the values of 6,., F„, and M, allowing the
calculation to be performed iteratively such that the calculated
values of F„ and M converged on the prescribed ones, which
provided the solution of 5,.
(3)
found to hold, specifically that kr remains unchanged if O/F^ is
fixed under a given value of F„, no matter how large the values
of 9 and F^ are. This relationship corresponds very well with
the experimental results wherein the resonance frequency hardly
changes when the impulse force varies by small amounts. Con-
sequently, this hints at a convenient parameter of 9/Fr for com-
paring the amounts of ^, between those resulting from the exper-
(4) iments and those from the calculations.
Calculated and experimental results are compared in Figs. 7
and 8 for the ball numbers of eight and four, respectively. From
the calculation results in which 6IF/1& used as the parameter,
the radial stiffness is found to decrease noticeably as the tilt
increases. This is plausibly understandable from the geometrical
relationship demonstrated in Fig. 6(b); that is, the balls can
easily escape from being deformed when contact angle a be-
comes larger.
Since the experimental data are observed to lie along the
curve resulting from a specified 9IFr value, the relationship of
9 °^ Fr is considered to be satisfied for all experiments.
For reference, the averaged value of the measured tilt angle
and its variation range are also presented in the figures. From
these values, the tilt is found to be slightly larger for the larger
clearance and for the larger ball number, but still remains within
the ( 1 - 2 ) X IQ-' degrees range. The experimental data desig-
nated by • are found to He in the ( 1 - 2 ) X 10"'' N//.im range.
As for the radial stiffness, the experimental data were recently
obtained to be in good accordance with the calculation (Igara-
shi, 1990). Assuming that this holds true for the present experi-
Transactions of the ASME
 = 1-3 Ns/mm. The reason for this discrepancy is considered
: Experimental (« = 1,24 ± 0,36 x lO"' deg.) to be that, in the present experiments, the resonance frequency
: Calculated O/F^^OC^H./N) is decreased considerably due to the occurrence of the tilting
mode vibration, and that the damping owing to the preload
mechanism is eliminated.
The same results with the ball number of four are demon-
strated in Fig. 10. When comparing with Fig. 9, the decrease
in the ball number leads to a decrease in damping. The reduction
rate is not so large, however, considering that the ball number
is reduced to half of that in Fig. 9. Specifically, for the case of
5//m a larger clearance as compared in Figs. 9(c) and 10(c), the
effect of the ball number is observed to be small for the with-
04 grease case.
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 KO
Preload, Fa N From Figs. 9 and 10, the effects of the preloading are found
(a) Clearance: C = 5/im to appear most noticeably under the conditions of a larger clear-
ance and with grease.

5.2 Damping Ratio. The amount of damping is occasion-

ally evaluated in terms of the damping ratio. Figure 11 exempli-
100 fies the damping ratios resulting from the experiments for the
• : Experimental (« = i .96 ± 0.74 x lO-' deg.)
e : ^ : Calculated
ball number of eight and clearances of 5 and 30 jj,m. This
^ 80 figure obviously resembles Fig. 9(a) and (c), which has been
iv = 0(deg./N)
prepared under the same experimental conditions. On detailed
*•• 60 -
comparison, however, variation in the damping coefficient, c^
0.5 X 1 0 ' * oc C,skr, with a varying preload, F„, appears smaller than that
4)
in the damping ratio, C, since ^ and -Jkr varies inversely with
I 40- varying F„, which shows a tendency toward cancellation.
•a From this figure, the damping ratios are observed to range t,
= 2 - 4 percent under the conditions of with grease and a preload
C = 30 fim
larger than 50 N. Notably, these values are considerably smaller
0 compared with those obtained from Kakizaki's data (1986)
20 40 60 80 100 120 140
Preload, Fa N
(b) Clearance; C = 30 /im
100
Fig. 7 Comparisons of stiffness between experimental and calculated • : Experimental (c = i.03± 0.37 x 10^= deg.)
results (number of balls: n = 8, without grease) = : : Calculated
a. 80

ments, a static value of Fr transformed from the experimental 60

value is estimated to be around ION.
* 40
5 Damping Under the Nonrotation Condition
20
5.1 Damping Coefficients. Using the damping ratio re-
sulting from the curve fitting, the damping coefficient is given
as
20 40 60 80 100 120 140
kr Preload, Fa N
c,. = 4TrCf(m + m,,,) = 47r^ (6) (a) Clearance: C = 5 /(m
m + m..
Experimental results for the ball number of eight are demon-
strated in Fig. 9 with clearances of C = 5, 15, and 30 /im as a
parameter. Fairly large scattering is observed in the measured
100
values. Since a single ball bearing has a complex structure by • : Experimental C = i-S-i ± 0.46 x lo-' deg.)
itself, slight differences in the contact condition, in the differen- ^ r : Calculated
tial or spin slips, in the location of the cage, and in the impulse <; 80
condition are considered to produce this large scattering in the
damping. 60
c, is found to decrease with the increasing preloading while
it increases with the grease enclosed, which constitutes the same te 40- »/,?; = 0(deg./N)
tendency obtained in Kakizaki's experiments (1986). Notably,
Cr increases with the increasing clearance, C, both for the with-
and without-grease cases. This corresponds to the fact that the 20
increase in the clearance facilitates the slipping of the contact 30 ^m
surfaces rather than their rolling, which results in an increase
in friction. In this regard, it is interesting to compare the present 20 40 60 80 10 120 140
Preload, Fa N
results with the recent ones obtained by Kakizaki (1986) under
the condition of no grease and a preload larger than 50 N. The (b) Clearance: C = 30 !<•
present values ranging c^ = 0.15-0.35 Ns/mm are much smaller Fig. 8 Comparisons of stiffness between experimental and calculated
than the values reported by Kakizaki (1986) which ranged Cr results (number of balls: n = 4, without grease)

Journal of Tribology JULY 1998, Vol. 1 2 0 / 4 1 7

Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms

 ranging C, = 5 - 1 5 percent while they are larger compared with 0.6 n =4
Tsutsumi's ( 1 9 8 0 ) data ranging C, f^ I percent. C = 5^m
Importantly, since the experimental bearing sizes differ be- o : With grease
•0.5 • : Without grease
tween these three experiments, the comparisons made are not
on an equal footing. Considering that Kakizaki's data ( 1 9 8 6 ) .^O.A
are for the lateral mode, Tsutsumi's ( 1 9 8 0 ) are for the tilting
mode, and the present are for the coupled mode, the tilting 0.3
mode is considered to decrease the damping value. te

6 Damping Under the Rotation Condition

T h e damping coefficients resulting from the rotation condi-
0.2

0.1
-iTlyrrniiy
tion for eight balls are demonstrated in Fig. 12 with clearances

0 20 AO 60 80 100 120 lAO

Preload, F^ N
,0.6
(a) Clearance: C = 5 ^ m
C = 5 p,m
^0.51 O : With grease
• : Without grease
-O.A ,0.6 n=4
o
o O C = 15/im
o O : With grease
0,3 !"0.5
• ; Without grease
Sfi § 8 o
0.2

•0.1
•^•Tjn rO.A

.S0.3
° o Q Q p

8 0.2
0 20 AG 60 80 100 120 1A0
Preload, F„ N • ' « • • • :
lo.i
(a) Clearance: C — b fMm

20 AO 60 80 100 120 lAO

Preload, Fa N
0.6 n=«
B (b) Clearance: C = 15 ^ m
S C = 15/im
>0.5 O : With grease
• ; Without grease
.s-O.A 0.6 n=4
S C = 30 ^m
s O : With grease
0.3 •) • : Without grease
~S-0.5
sa 2
0.2 o^0.A
o o
0.1 i 0.3-
8°
u
° 8 8
0 0 . 8
8 0.2i-'
0 20 AO 60 80 100 120 lAO bO
a
IT^H r:|T7
Preload, F„ N
(b) Clearance: C = 15/im lo.i

0 20 AO 60 80 100 120 lAO

Preload, Fa N
gO.6 n=» (c) Clearance: C = 30 /im
S C = 30/im
^0.5 o : With grease Fig. 10 Damping coefficients under nonrotation condition (number of
• ; Without grease balls: n = 4)
rO.A
t
f t 0 of 5, 15, and 30 fjtm as the parameter. Notably, in this experi-
i 0.3
o ment, impact was applied to the shaft regardless of stationary
• • or rotation for the same impact condition. Since the preload
0.2 ••I was fixed at 70 N, the resonance frequency hardly changed even
when the rotational speed was varied. This implies that the
'CI quotient of the damping ratio divided by the damping coefficient
Q remains nearly constant. T h e damping ratios, C, percent, can
thus be given by multiplying the ordinates by 8.3 times as
0 20 AO 60 80 100 120 lAO shown in Fig. 1 2 ( a ) , by 8.6 times in Fig. 12(b) and by 9.4
Preload, Fa N times in Fig. 1 2 ( c ) .
(c) Clearance: C = 30/tm
From this figure, the bearing rotation effect on the damping
Fig. 9 Damping coefficients under nonrotation condition (number of is found to be tolerably small, demonstrating that the damping
bails: n = 8) coefficients decrease with increasing rotational speed and then

418 / Vol. 120, JULY 1998 Transactions of the ASME

Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms

 tend toward saturation. The reduction in damping caused by so.:
bearing rotation is considered to constitute the occurrence of n = 8
s C = b f^m
transformation from the damping based on the static friction to o: With grease
that on the dynamic friction. The reduction rate is larger for the • : Without grease
with-grease condition, while the static damping is larger for this <f0.2
condition. This is due to the fact that the difference between ^ I I
with/without grease disappears with an increase in speed; that
is, the grease hardly contributes to the damping in the higher- so.
speed range. Notably, reduction in damping caused by rotation
seems to follow from the reduction in viscosity of the grease,
which can be predicted from the visco-elastic characteristics of
the grease.
600 1200 1600 2«00 3000
The maximum contact pressure is calculated to be 1.0-1.3 Rotational speed, N rpm
GPa at the preload of 70 N. Consequently, the ball-raceway (a) Clearance: C — b fim.
interface enclosing grease is categorized into the elasto-hydro-
dynamic lubrication regime. Attention should be given to the
fact that such a thin elasto-hydrodynamically lubricating film
permits almost no damping function to arise.
0.3 n = 8
7 Conclusion C = 15/im
0: With grease
The damping characteristics inherent in vibration transfer • : Without grease
through deep-groove ball bearings for magnetic storage use •0.2T
were precisely measured. To isolate the damping of the bearings
from the damping of the test apparatus, an experimental appara-
tus was prudently constructed; the monolithic-type ball bearing
was fabricated without any fittings by unifying the inner ring :o.i-
with the shaft and the outer ring with the rotor, and the preload-
ing was performed through an externally pressurized air bearing 6
with no need for solid contact with the rotor's upper surface. ti

Stiffness and damping resulting from a single bearing were a 600 1200 1800 2400 3000
Rotational speed, A^ rpm
first obtained through curve fitting on the transfer function mea-
(b) Clearance: C = 15//.m

n = 8
C = 5/im
£S 4. o ; With grease
• : Without grease , O.S-
71 = 8
C = 30/jm

M2
ti 0: With grease
• : Without grease

'S. •
• lis .J-0.2r

It! 1 M i l l
gO.1
0 20 AC 60 80 100 120 lAO
Preload, Fa N
( a ) C l e a r a n c e : C = 5 fim
o 0-
600 1200 1800 2A00 3000
Rotational speed, N rpm
(c) Clearance: C = 30/(m

Fig. 12 Damping coefficients under rotation condition (number of balls:

n = 8, preload: F, = 70 N)
5'
C = 30 ion
O : With grease sured utilizing impulse hammering. Selected as the bearing pa-
• : Without grease
rameters were bearing clearance, number of balls, and presence
or absence grease, and chosen as the operating parameters were
.2'3'
u
!i preload and rotational speed. The experimental results derived
•cj> 2
a
l-l can be summarized as follows:
'5. •
1. Owing to the asymmetric structure of the single bearing,
in the present experiments constitute coupled vibration in
Q
the lateral and tilting modes. For practical operating con-
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 ditions, measured values of damping ratio are 2 - 4 per-
Preload, Fa N cent and damping coefficients range from 0.15-0.35 Ns/
(b) Clearance: C = 30/im mm. From the comparison with the recently obtained
Fig. 11 Damping ratios under nonrotation condition (number of balls; values, the damping is decreased considerably by tilting
n = 0) mode vibration.

Journal of Tribology JULY 1998, Vol. 120 / 419

Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms

 2. The damping decreases with increasing preload while it
increases with the grease enclosed, and is larger for the
greater clearance and for the larger ball number. The
number of balls, however, does not hold a linear relation-
ship with the damping value.
3. The superimposition of tilting mode vibration upon the
lateral mode and the decrease in the clearance, which
facilitate the rolling of the contact surfaces, serve to de-
crease damping. This result hints that the occurrence of
ball rolling motion instead of ball slipping motion causes
the decrease in damping.
4. The damping decreases owing to bearing rotation, tend-
ing toward saturation with increasing speed. The varia-
tion rate, however, is small. Specifically, the grease effect
disappears for a higher-speed range, which implies that
the grease hardly contributes the damping under the bear-
ing rotation condition.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to express their gratitude to Professor Hiro-
shi Ota of Nagoya University for his valuable guidance and
420 / Vol. 120, JULY 1998
Downloaded From: http://tribology.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 08/15/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms
encouragement, and to the Research and Development Center
of NSK Ltd. for their exceptional effort extended to fabricating
the experimental bearings.
References
Elsermans, M., Hongerloot, M., and Snoeys, R., 1976, "Damping in Taper
Roller Bearings," Proc. of 16th Int. MTDR Conf., pp. 223-228.
Harris, T. A., 1984, Rolling Bearing Analysis, Second Edition, Wiley, pp. 193-
199.
Igarashi, K., and Ohta, H., 1990, "Studies on the Natural Frequency of Ball
Bearings, First Report, Vibration Characteristics of Ordinary-sized Ball Bearings
and Natural Vibrations in the Rigid-body Mode of the Outer Ring," Trans. JSME,
Vol. 56, No. 528, C, pp. 51-59 (in Japanese).
Kakizaki, T., 1986, "Effects of Pivot Clearance on Head Positioning of a
Rotary Actuator for Magnetic Disk Storage," ASME Journal of Mechanism, Vol.
108, No. 4, pp. 556-561.
Leibensperger, R. L., 1972, "Bearing Preload," Machine Design, Vol. 10, No.
8, pp. 100-105.
Polycarpou, A, A., and Soom A., 1995, "Boundary and Mixed Friction in the
Presence of Dynamic Normal Loads: Part I—Syatem Model," ASME JOURNAL
OF TRIBOLOQY, Vol. 117, No. 2, pp. 255-260.
Shoda, Y., 1981, "Damping Characteristics of Roller Bearings," JSLE Preprint
of Spring Conf., pp. 141-144 (in Japanese).
Tsutsumi, M., Nabeta, N., and Nishiwaki, N., 1980, "Damping in Rolling
Bearings,—Effects of Bearing Types—," JSPE Preprint of Spring Conf., pp.
235-236 (in Japanese).
Transactions of the ASME