The rapid evolution of spacecraft has placed increased demands on tribological contacts. Simultaneous increases have been made in the required life, size, loads, and power density of mechanisms having continually increasing complexity. Improvements have been made in solid lubricants to prevent wear and seizure of galling-prone alloys, but further improvements in lubricants and designs are needed for the next generation of spacecraft. Two examples are given of combining materials and design to meet future bearing requirements. In the first, wear of rolling element bearings for applications requiring the maintenance of high accuracy is compensated by an electric sensing and feedback positioning circuit. As a demonstration of the concept, the runout on a spindle supported by conventional angular contact ball bearings was reduced by an order of magnitude. In the second, a bearing separator for service in high pressure oxidizer pumps of rocket engines provides the required transfer-film lubrication of the high performance rotor bearings. The replacement separator incorporates bronze-filled polytetra-fluorethylene (PTFE) instead of glass-fiber-reinforced PTFE for better transfer characteristics, but requires metal structural elements to meet strength requirements.
Tribology problems in future spacecraft
Tribologische Probleme in der zukünftigen Raumfahrt
1988
6 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 7 Quellen
Conference paper
English
Space tribology: its role in spacecraft mechanisms
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