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Life Improvement of Plain Airframe Bearings by Preventing Contamination
Navy SBIR 2013.1 - Topic N131-016 NAVAIR - Ms. Donna Moore - [email protected] Opens: December 17, 2012 - Closes: January 16, 2013 N131-016 TITLE: Life Improvement of Plain Airframe Bearings by Preventing Contamination TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform ACQUISITION PROGRAM: PMA-275 OBJECTIVE: Develop a low cost, low friction innovative contamination prevention system for plain airframe bearings. DESCRIPTION: Plain lined spherical bearings are used in a variety of aerospace applications to provide a connection between two structures experiencing oscillating and misaligning motions. Liquid and solid contamination is a common issue that significantly diminishes the operational life of the bearing. As normal liner wear progresses, the bearing becomes even more susceptible to contamination due to an increased gap for contamination to penetrate the liner/race interface. The presence of both solid and liquid contamination in the bearing exacerbates the wear rate, resulting in premature plain bearing degradation and failure. Current contamination prevention methods increase friction which generates heat further contributing to bearing failure or performance limitations. Bearing shields are expensive and do not provide acceptable protection to justify their expense. Bearing contamination impacts every aircraft in the fleet and therefore causes excessive maintenance costs and operational availability. A low cost, low friction solution to prevent contamination of plain airframe bearings is sought. The proposed solution will consider both material selection and design features to achieve high contamination resistance while minimizing additional friction and cost. The proposed system would increase bearing life by protecting the bearing without significantly increasing initial breakaway/running torque, temperature or maintenance cost. Additional bearing installation time, methods and equipment should be minimized. PHASE I: Develop innovative concepts for preventing contamination in plain airframe bearings. Demonstrate the feasibility of the approach through limited testing. PHASE II: Fully develop the concept conceived during Phase I into a prototype bearing contamination prevention system. Demonstrate the ability of a protected bearing assembly to withstand the severe Navy environment while performing limited qualification testing. PHASE III: Complete all required qualification testing to implement the technology. Develop low cost manufacturing approaches and transition the technology to the fleet and commercial applications. PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL/DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: Commercial aircraft and industrial or recreational machinery could benefit from increased bearing life and reliability. REFERENCES: 2. SAE AS81820 (R) 3. MIL-HDBK-1599A Department of Defense Handbook, Bearings, Control system Components, And Associated Hardware Used In The Design and Construction of Aerospace Mechanical Systems and Subsystems (03/1997) http://www.everyspec.com/MIL-HDBK/MIL-HDBK+(1500+-+1799)/MIL_HDBK_1599A_1831/ KEYWORDS: plain bearing, self lubricating bearing liner system, contamination resistance, low friction, maintenance
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