T1, T2, T3 Cage Testing and Analysis

Characteristics of three types of cages as shown in Table 1. below.

Cage Designation	T1	T2	T3
Guidance	Outer ring guided	Rolling element guided	Mixed guided / Outer ring guided
Material	Phenolic	Nylon	PEEK
Noise at low RPM	○	○○○	○○○
Restriction to rolling element (lower restriction the better)	○○○	○	○○
Max. DmN	> 1,600,000	≈ 900,000	≈ 1,600,000
○○○：Great ○○：Acceptable ○：Weak

Table 1.

Figure 1. T1 Cage

Figure 2. T2 Cage

Figure 3. T3 Cage

As the rotating speed increased, T3 cage has become outer ring guided from mixed guided.

Finally, cage DmN test has been carried out under DmN value 1.6M (18k rpm) with HS014CE1 bearing and test result as shown in Figure 4.

Conclusion of cage investigation after bearing run-in test as below,

Scratch between rolling element and ball pocket was found in sample with T2 cage.