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Abstract

Literature review revealed that operation lifetime of roller bearings was a factor determining reliability of automotive machinery. On the basis of analysis of existing methods of improvement of lifetime of roller bearings a promising trend was determined: modification of greases by nanosized powders of various metals and their compounds. The selected variant was based on possibility to improve service properties of roller bearing surfaces without application of expensive equipment and tools. This method was implemented at the stage of operation during actual adsorptive, chemosorptive and tribochemical processes in the friction areas with nanosized components. Grease was experimentally developed on the basis of Lithol-24, Russian standard GOST 21150-87 with nanosized metal particles obtained by plasma recondensation. Comparative tribological experiments of commercial grease and nanosized grease demonstrated efficiency of the latter. Commercial tests of roller bearings with the developed grease had been carried out. The acquired experimental results demonstrated that gamma-percentile life of the bearings operating with the developed grease was by 2.8 times higher than that of the bearings operating with the commercial grease.