Helical grease groove

[trallee]

I work in an industry where plain bearings (usually bronze)for low speed high stress applications are used. We have played with both straight grease grooves and helical grease grooves and really cannot see any difference. The straight grooves are much easier to manufacture and therefore more appealing to us as a manufacturer but at the same time our customers think the helical grooves are the more efficient (through the use of a good marketing campaign by our competitors).

Is there any scientific reasoning for either argument? I know Machine Design had a pretty good article a couple years ago about using oil with helical grooves but grease was never mentioned.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Troy

 

[Pressed]

.

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.diva-portal.org/diva/getDocument?urn_nbn_se_kth_diva-429-2__fulltext.pdf[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/sitb-next/0471283029/103-4237683-9807029[/URL]

[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.noria.com/learning_center/category_article.asp?articleid=243&relatedbookgroup=Lubrication2[/URL]

Not definative, but it's a start.

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[trallee]

Thank you for your help. There is some intersting pieces of information in these.

Troy

 

[EdDanzer]

Plain bearings need lubrication and surface area to carry a load. If the grease groove or grooves reduce the load carrying area, life can be reduced. If you machine the bushing in a CNC machine the helical groove is cheaper to cut and can provide a uniform surface area to calculate the load bearing area of the bushing.