Modification of the raceway profile of a single-row ball slewing bearing

The paper attempts to analyze the phenomena in the contact zone of a four-point single-row slewing bearing. Contact angle of slewing bearings changes over a substantial range. The causes of such changes include deformation of the contact zone caused by bearing ball load and the relative displacements of the bearing rings caused by bearing clearance. Bearing clearance can be due to manufacturing defects or wear of the bearing raceway. With large values of the osculation, the contact zone in the radial cross-section of the bearing is relatively large. Therefore, the increase in the contact angle in a bearing leads to the displacement of the contact zone towards the raceway edge. Consequently, the raceway edge is damaged and the bearing wear starts to accelerate. This study presents the results of the numerical analysis of pressure in the contact zone at large values of the contact angle. A change in the geometry of the raceway profile was proposed and numerical analysis of the effects of the corrected raceway profile was presented.