TECHNICAL REPORT

Development of Super-low Friction Torque Tapered Roller Bearing for Drive Pinion Axle
A. UEMURA A. SUZUKI K. ONO

K. SAKAMOTO

T. MAEDA

H. MATSUYAMA

The effects of internal geometry and oil flow on the friction torque of tapered roller bearings were studied. This study led to
development of a new design method that helped developing a super-low torque tapered roller bearing with 80% lower torque
compared with conventional standard bearings. Optimally designed tapered roller bearings for differential pinions enable
significant reduction of bearing torque. It was also been confirmed that new low torque bearings are satisfactory in terms of
anti-seizure performance and service life.
Key Words: tapered roller bearing, tribology, differential gear, low friction torque

1. Introduction
Improvement of automobile fuel efficiency is considered as
a critical issue from the viewpoint of global environmental
protection as this directly leads to reduction of CO2 and other
toxic substance emission. Therefore, both automotive
manufacturers and automotive-unit manufacturers are now
urged to work on improvement of the efficiency in drivelines
(transmissions, differentials, etc.) in parallel with the
improvement of engines. As high-rigidity tapered roller
bearings are often used in the drivelines to support their
geared shafts, reduction in torque is strongly demanded. In
response to these demands, Koyo has been intensively
researching the effects of bearing internal geometry and oil
flow therein on the torque, as well as technology development
to reduce the torque of tapered roller bearings (hereinafter
referred to as TRB) up to 80 % compared to standard TRB1), 2).
This paper presents the results of performance tests on tapered
roller bearings developed for drive pinions of differentials
(hereinafter referred to as pinion) incorporating some of these
technologies.

2. Concepts of Torque Reduction for

Differentials
Koyo has provided the low torque tapered roller bearings
series (LFT 1 & 23), 4)) to the market as shown in Table 1,
which have been developed through incorporating some
factors of bearing internal geometry. Effects of internal
geometry of TRB on its torque are summarized as follows:
q Torque is reduced with a decrease in roller length.
w Torque is reduced with a decrease in the number of
rollers.
e Torque is reduced with an increase in outer ring contact
angle.
r Torque is reduced with a decrease of the roller PCD.
t Torque is reduced with a decrease in the raceway
crowning radius.
y Oil agitation resistance can be reduced by restricting the

oil flow into the bearing by reducing the clearance

between the cage and the cone front face rib.
Table 1 History of torque reduction on Koyo TRBs
Improvement

Standard LFT 1 LFT 2 Developed

Roughness and profile of

Raceway crowning

Optimization of internal

cone back face rib/roller

end face

geometry
Restriction of oil flow
LFT : Low Frictional Torque

(# : Changed)

A structure of a differential drive pinion is shown in Fig. 1.

Generally, the pinion head bearing tends to be in an excessive
lubricant condition because of the oil splashed from the ring
gear in addition to the full-level oil sump between the head
and tail bearings. The tail bearing is liable to be overheated at
the start of operation under low temperature due to inadequate
lubrication condition because of the nose angle. In order to
alleviate such a biased lubricating situation, a measure is
provided to restrict the oil flow into the head bearing, thereby
increasing the amount of lubricant into the tail bearing, which
enables to improve the seizure resistance2), as shown in Fig. 2.
Drive pinion
Ring gear
Oil flow

Head bearing

Tail bearing

Fig. 1 Structure of differential drive pinion axle

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Koyo Engineering Journal English Edition No.167E (2005)

Development of Super-low Friction Torque Tapered Roller Bearing for Drive Pinion Axle

Head bearing

Tail bearing

Table 3 Torque measurement conditions for a bearing

Rotational speed, min1

Small oil
flow rate

Large oil
flow rate

1 000, 2 000, 4 000

Axial load

Equivalent to bearing preload

Lubricant

Gear oil

Oil temperature, ;
Lubrication method

50
Bearing upper end filled with
lubricant

Restriction of oil flow

Fig. 2 Labyrinth structure of oil flow into pinion head bearings

Taking account of such operating environment, a new low

torque tapered roller bearing for the pinion was developed.
Table 2 shows the changes incorporated into the developed
TRB when compared to the conventional LFT II TRB. These
changes correspond to those shown in Fig. 3, although the
bearing boundary dimensions (bore, outer diameter and width)
were not changed.

Load
Air bearing

Lubricant

Load cell
40mm
(Oil level)

Test bearing

Table 2 Changes incorporated in developed bearing from

conventional LFT 2 (# : Changed)
Motor

Head

Tail

bearing

bearing

qRoller length, LWR

2.5

wNumber of rollers, Z

2.0

eOuter ring contact angle, a

rRoller PCD, dm

tRaceway crowning radius, RCo, RCi

yReduction of cage-cone clearance

Fig. 4 Torque measurement equipment for a bearing

Torque, Nm

Factor

Developed
LFT @

1.5
1.0
40% reduction from LFT @
0.5
0.0

Raceway profile
DW

1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000

1
Rotational speed, min

5 000

Fig. 5 Measured torque of pinion head bearing

LWR

RCo or RCi

Fig. 3 Internal geometry of TRB

3. Results of Bearing Performance Test

3. 1 Results of Torque Reduction Test
Torque of the bearing was measured with the test
equipment as shown in Fig. 4 under the conditions shown in
Table 3. After applying the axial load on the bearing, the
inner ring was rotated at the specified rotational speed. During
each test run, the level of oil sump was kept constant by
replenishing the same amount of oil as that flowing out
through the bearing. The bearing torque was obtained with a
load cell by measuring the moment generated on the outer ring
supported by the air bearing.
Figure 5 shows the torque measurement results with pinion
head bearings. Compared with the LFT 2, or conventional
low torque bearing, the developed bearing achieved 40%
1
reduction of torque at 2 000 min .

Koyo Engineering Journal English Edition No.167E (2005)

1.0
0.8
Torque, Nm

dm

Torque measurement results with pinion tail bearings are

shown in Fig. 6. Compared with the LFT 2, the developed
bearing achieved 15% reduction in rotational torque at 2 000
1
min . As shown in Table 2, the reason why the torque
reduction of the tail bearing was smaller is considered due to
the limited reduction effect of oil agitation resistance without
restricting oil flow by reducing the clearance between the cage
and the cone front face rib.

0.6
15% reduction from LFT @

0.4

Developed
LFT @

0.2
0.0

1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000

1
Rotational speed, min

5 000

Fig. 6 Measured torque of pinion tail bearing

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Development of Super-low Friction Torque Tapered Roller Bearing for Drive Pinion Axle

3. 2 Anti-seizure Performance Test

As, in differentials, it sometimes happens that the lubricant
supply to the pinion shaft is reduced to an extremely low level
at start under low temperature or when the vehicle is
negotiating a steep curve, anti-seizure performance is
important for pinion bearings. Therefore, the anti-seizure
performance test was conducted under the conditions shown in
Table 5. Test equipment is shown in Fig. 7. Detection of
bearing seizure was conducted with the increase of electric
current on the motor that drove the test bearing.

Since bearings are used in lubricants contaminated with

debris from gear meshing in actual operation of differentials,
bearing life in contaminated lubricants is important. Then,
bearing life was tested in contaminated lubricant under
conditions shown in Table 6. The test equipment is shown in
Fig. 9.
Table 6 Conditions for life test in contaminated lubricant
Rotational speed, min1

Table 5 Conditions of seizure test

Rotational speed, min1

3. 3 Life Evaluations under Contaminated

Lubrication

2 000
0.35 C (Head bearing)

6 000

0.45 C (Tail Bearing)

Equivalent radial load

Bearing preload 1.3

Axial load
Lubricant

Radial load : Axial load = 1 : 1

Gear oil coating

Testing time, min

Lubricant

Until seizure takes place

Gear oil

Contaminant concentration,

0.2

wt%
Screw for axial loading

Oil temperature, ;

70

Oil amount

Support bearing
(same size as test bearing)

Test bearing

Up to shaft center line

C: Dynamic load rating of LFT 2

Coil spring for radial loading

Pulley

Test bearing

Support bearing
Coupling

Coil spring for

axial loading

Fig. 7 Schematic of seizure test equipment

Figure 8 shows the test results. The developed bearing,

when used as a tail bearing, which is more susceptible to
inadequate lubrication, showed the time of more than 4
minutes until bearing seizure. This means that there is no
problem because oil is supplied until that time in practical use.

Air

Fig. 9 Schematic of life test equipment

The results are shown in Fig. 10. Developed bearings, when

used as the head and tail bearings, had life equivalent to that of
LFT 2 bearings.

Head bearing

Head bearing

Tail bearing

Developed

Tail bearing

6 min 40 sec

Developed

0.39

LFT @

0.39

0.61

LFT @

0.62

4 min 49 sec
0

Time until seizure (average of two), min

Fig. 8 Result of seizure test

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

L-10 life/Calculated life

Fig. 10 Life test result in contaminated lubricant

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Koyo Engineering Journal English Edition No.167E (2005)

Development of Super-low Friction Torque Tapered Roller Bearing for Drive Pinion Axle

4. Torque Reduction Effect on Actual

Differential

5. Conclusions

The developed bearings were mounted on the pinion shaft

of an actual differential for torque measurement under test
conditions shown in Table 7. The test fixture used is shown in
Fig. 11, wherein the pinion shaft is driven by an electric motor
with torque meter mounted in between. To isolate the pinion
bearing torque, the pinion gear was disengaged from the ring
gear. And the ring gear was driven by another motor and the
ring gear speed was adjusted to simulate the actual speed
corresponding to each pinion speed because the lubricant
should be splashed to the pinion bearings.
Table 7 Conditions for torque measurement on bearing
assembled in differential
Rotational speed, min1

1 000, 2 000, 4 000

Axial load

Bearing preload only

Lubricant

Gear oil

Oil temperature, ;
Differential unit

50
Torque meter

Motor

Motor

Fig. 11 Schematic of torque measurement equipment for

bearings assembled in differential

The developed technology for super-low torque bearing was

partially applied to TRB used for pinions of differentials. This
developed bearing showed improvement in performance as
follows;
1) Torque measurement on the bearing showed 40% and
15% torque reduction for pinion head and tail bearings,
respectively, at 2 000 min1 when compared with LFT 2.
2) Torque measurement on the developed pinion bearings
mounted on an actual differential unit showed 20%
torque reduction compared to LFT 2. This result was
consistent with the torque reduction on an individual
bearing.
3) The developed bearings, when used as less lubricated tail
bearing, withstood for more than 4 minutes until seizure,
which showed that there would be no problem in actual
use.
4) The life of the developed bearing was equivalent to LFT
2 under contaminated lubrication. The evaluation was
extended to other aspects of bearing performances, such
as bearing noise level, decrease of bearing mounting
width, axial rigidity, preload loss, and cone back face rib
strength. In all these aspects, the developed bearing was
found to have performance equivalent to LFT 2 bearing
without any problem.
Following this development of a low-torque tapered roller
bearing, another development has been in progress to further
optimize the entire bearing design, which is expected to have a
torque reduction effect of nearly the same as reported in
development of super-low torque technology. In the future,
this low torque bearing technology will be applied to a wide
variety of powered machinery to improve their efficiency, and
thereby to contribute to the protection of the global
environment.

These results are shown in Fig. 12. Torque reduction of

20% was observed compared with LFT 2 at 2 000 min1. This
result was consistent with the torque measurement result on
each individual bearing.

Torque, Nm

5
4
3
20% reduction from LFT @

Developed
LFT @

1
0

1 000

2 000
3 000
4 000
1
Rotational speed, min

5 000

Fig. 12 Result of torque measurement of bearing

assembled in differential

Koyo Engineering Journal English Edition No.167E (2005)

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Development of Super-low Friction Torque Tapered Roller Bearing for Drive Pinion Axle

References
1)

2)

3)
4)

H. Matsuyama, H. Dodoro, K. Ogino, H. Ohshima, H.

Chiba and K. Toda: Koyo Engineering Journal, 167E
(2005) 22.
H. Chiba, H. Matsuyama, K. Ogino, H. Ohshima and H.
Dodoro: Proceedings of JSAE Annual Congress, 92-04
(2004) 9.
M. Takeuchi: Koyo Engineering Journal, 127 (1985) 52.
Y. Asai and H. Ohshima: Koyo Engineering Journal, 143
(1993) 23.

A. UEMURA*

K. SAKAMOTO**

A. SUZUKI*

K. ONO*

T. MAEDA** H. MATSUYAMA***

Chubu Technical Center, Bearing Business Operations

Headquarters
** Analysis Engineering Department, Bearing Business Operations
Headquarters
***Core Technology Research & Development Department, Research
& Development Center

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Koyo Engineering Journal English Edition No.167E (2005)