Rolling element bearings are essential components in modern mechanical equipment, providing crucial support for rotating parts. Hybrid ceramic ball bearings, consisting of steel rings and ceramic balls, have gained popularity in high-speed machinery to enhance performance. These bearings offer advantages such as longer fatigue life, improved performance, and higher speeds. Extensive research by scholars has been conducted to promote the wider adoption of hybrid ceramic ball bearings. This paper compiles relevant studies on hybrid ceramic bearings, organizing literature related to their lifetime, arranging literature pertaining to their performance analysis from the perspective of analytical methods, and collating literature on their lubrication techniques from the angle of lubrication methods. This paper covers research on lifetime modeling, fatigue spalling, wear, mechanical and tribological properties, dynamic performance, thermal analysis, temperature considerations, and lubrication techniques of hybrid ceramic ball bearings. The aim is to provide readers and researchers with a comprehensive overview of these innovative bearings.
Many low-temperature applications, such as rocket engines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) transport pumps, necessitate ultra-low-temperature operational environments. In these conditions, the properties of lubricating oils and greases are significantly influenced by temperature, leading to the widespread adoption of solid lubrication. Currently, there is no international research regarding the influence of bearing coatings on the subsurface stress distribution in raceways. The Lundberg–Palmgren (L-P) theory states that subsurface stress variations govern bearing lifespan. Therefore, this paper utilizes existing formulas and Python programming to calculate the subsurface stress field of the inner raceway in a MoS2 solid-lubricated angular contact ball bearing. Furthermore, it analyzes the impacts of factors such as coating material properties, slide-to-roll ratio, traction coefficient, and load on its subsurface stress field. The results reveal that for solid-lubricated ball bearings, as the load increases, the maximum subsurface stress shifts closer to the center of the contact area, and the maximum subsurface shear stress becomes more concentrated. As the traction coefficient increases, the stress on the XZ-plane side increases and its position moves closer to the surface, while the opposite trend is observed on the other side. Additionally, the maximum value of the subsurface von Mises stress is approximately 0.64P0, and the maximum value of the orthogonal shear stress component τyz in the subsurface is approximately 0.25P0.