Bearing steel is used to make balls, rollers and bearing rings of steel, is also a special steel quality. It is also known as high-carbon chromium steel, the carbon content is about 1%, the chromium content is about 0.5% ~ 1.65%.
There are many kinds of bearing steel, according to different properties and uses, can be divided into high-carbon chromium bearing steel, chromium-free bearing steel, carburized bearing steel, stainless bearing steel, high temperature bearing steel and anti-magnetic bearing steel and other six categories.
Bearing steel has a high and uniform hardness and wear resistance, as well as a high elastic limit. Its chemical composition uniformity, the content and distribution of non-metallic inclusions, the distribution of carbides and other requirements are very strict. This is because the bearing needs to withstand huge pressure and friction when working, so the performance of the bearing steel has extremely high requirements.
Bearing steel is mainly used to manufacture rolling parts and rings of rolling bearings. Since the bearing should have the characteristics of long life, high precision, low caloric value, high speed, high rigidity, low noise, high wear resistance, the bearing steel is required to have: high hardness, uniform hardness, high elastic limit, high contact fatigue strength, necessary toughness, certain hardenability, corrosion resistance in atmospheric lubricants.
In general, bearing steel is an extremely important special steel, its manufacturing and use involves many key industrial fields, such as aerospace, automotive, mechanical equipment and so on.
