Determination of the wear of thermoplast journal-bearings in the initial strain

With aid of the radionuclide technique it should be tried to measure the wear of thermoplast journal-bearings in the initial strain. The activation of the bearings must be not too long so that no changes of the molecular structure can be happen. The wear of 6 activated bearings of one type was gathered in a fixed sequence and after determined ways of the periphery of the shaft. Then by comparison of the intensity of the radiation of the wear probes with that of a standard the amount of wear was calculated. The detection limit was about 2 μg. In spite of the deviations of the single values caused by unequal loads on axle the mean values show an indication of a bedding-in process up to 4000 m and then a relative constant wear. The simultaneous realized activation analysis of the probes show that the proportionate distribution of the trace elements in the wear and therewith in the surface layer of the bearings is different from the average distribution of the whole bearings. (Author)