With the increasing market share of automobiles, the constant velocity universal joint (also known as ball cage), the main component of front wheel drive or four-wheel drive, has also been more and more widely used. Its role is to connect two rotating shafts with an included angle between the shafts or with a change in their positions, and enable the two shafts to transmit power at the same angular speed. It is the key to the smooth and reliable transmission of automobile engine power to the wheels. In the automotive aftermarket, teachers often ask: Why did the cage wear out so quickly? The poor anti-wear performance of cage lubricating grease directly leads to serious wear of cage and shortened service life.
What's the matter with the cage leaking oil? The cage lubricating grease has poor oil separation performance at high temperature, resulting in serious oil leakage of the cage.
What is the problem that the cage is difficult to start at low temperature, resulting in abnormal noise of the car, or even damaging the bearings? The low temperature performance of cage grease is poor, and it is easy to solidify in winter, so it can not play a lubricating role, resulting in difficult operation of the cage, or even failure to start.
When the car leaves the factory, the ball cage must be initially equipped with lubricating grease. The amount of lubricating grease for one ball cage can reach 110g. A car has four ball cages, and 440g lubricating grease is required.
In order to reduce energy consumption and vibration, the cage tends to be miniaturized and the installation angle is further increased. This trend makes the grease for cage much more strict than that for other parts: good wear resistance, long life, high and low temperature resistance, and rubber compatibility. If the above four features fail to meet the standard, the cage may have the common conditions asked by teachers before long. 1. Abrasion resistance When the axial force generated by the cycle resonates with the vibration generated by the engine during vehicle driving, noise and vibration will be generated. Reducing the axial force and transferring the torque provided by the gearbox directly to the hub to prevent the vibration caused by it is one of the problems that the cage needs to solve. Therefore, the requirements for wear resistance of ball cage lubricating grease are very high, and good wear resistance is required. 2. Long life The ball cage grease shall have the same service life as the accessories to avoid increasing the vehicle maintenance cost. Under normal maintenance, the service life of the outer cage is more than 200000 km, and it can be used for 5-10 years. 3. High and low temperature resistance The improvement of the automobile performance and the improvement of the ball cage structure both improve the heat transfer from outside to inside and the heat release from inside. If the heat resistance of the ball cage grease is not high, it is easy to lose its lubrication due to thinning. At low temperatures in winter, if the low temperature resistance of the cage grease is poor, it is easy to solidify and cannot play a lubricating role, resulting in difficult operation of the cage, or even failure to start. 4. Rubber compatibility The cage is made of rubber sleeve. The lubricating grease with poor compatibility will cause the rubber sleeve to expand, skew, deflect or even damage, thus affecting the service life of the cage.
