Development of the carbon/phenolic composite shoulder bearing

Abstract In this work, a hybrid composite shoulder bearing composed of carbon fiber reinforced phenolic composite liner and steel back-up was manufactured to solve the seizure problem of metallic shoulder bearings because the carbon fiber has self-lubricating ability and the phenolic resin had thermal resistance characteristics. Stresses in the composite liner during the operation of bearings were calculated by the finite element method to check the reliability of the composite journal bearing, from which an optimum bonding condition between the steel back-up and the composite liner was suggested. Laboratory bench tests were performed to verify the analysis results, and the developed hybrid composite shoulder bearings have performed satisfactorily for the actual mounting of large journals into marine bearings.