A general elastic–plastic approach to impact analisys for stress state limit evaluation in ball screw bearings return system

A methodology for stress state limit recovering in ball screws return system is presented in this paper. A lot of different researches and standards have been already performed for rolling bearings load static and dynamic rating (ISO 76, ISO 281), but nothing has been said for ball screws except in some drafting standards (Draft standard DIN 69051-4). Also the overall stress limits introduced for rolling bearings in ISO standards are not valid for ball screws bearing because of their different contact geometry. Moreover, the plastic contact due to impact between the spheres and the ball return system, very important for ball screw bearing life determination, has been investigated in very recent works only for nominal impacts by Hung et al. Impact failure analysis of re-circulating mechanism in ball screw. Eng Failure Anal 2004;11:561–73].