Experimental Investigation of Journal Bearing Performance Under Dry Conditions

Journal bearings are important type of fluid film bearings. Bearings without liquid lubricants find use in many areas from computer printers, toys to rocket engines. Dry bearings work with little or no liquid lubrication. Compared to rolling-element bearings, dry bearings are simpler to design, less expensive to purchase and maintain and they resist contamination better. Though accelerated wear tests are used to investigate the performance of dry bearings, it is always considered 'Gold Standards' to perform a physical test on the bearing concerned. In this study tribological performance of 25% glass filled PTFE bearing is investigated. The tribological behaviours are studied based on the effects of sliding distance, bearing pressure and low and medium speeds.