Asymmetric ball-bearing races

In a ball bearing [link], we will assume that there are four lines on the races along which the balls make contact, two on the inner and two on the outer races (as in the second illustration in the article, captioned "a 4-point angular contact ball bearing"). Now, we'll make half of one race out of a different material, such that that different material is what's in contact with the balls along one of those four lines. This different material has a slightly higher or lower coefficient of rolling resistance with the bearing balls, compared to the material used for the other three-quarters of the races. The result is that the balls turn sideways (each one about a bearing-radial axis passing through its center) in a slow and somewhat controlled fashion as the bearing rotates. This has the obvious advantage of evening out wear over the surface of each ball, which could result in a longer-lived bearing.

Another, less obvious, advantage is that, in the application of a ball-bearing motor [link], each spot on each ball has a longer time of non-contact with the races between each moment of contact, as the bearing rotates. This means it has more time to cool down before needing to heat up again. This should increase the ball-bearing motor's endurance. (It often stops after only a few seconds of operation, due to the bearing balls overheating and expanding all over, meaning they can't expand at the contact points anymore, meaning there's no driving force for the motor. However, my contention is that the bearing balls don't actually expand all over, just around the ring that's been in contact with the races since the motor was started. If the balls are made to rotate sideways as well as rolling, this heating should be spread out over more of each ball's surface.)

N/A [2019-09-25]