Observation of Fatigue Fracture on PEEK Shaft against Alumina Bearing’s Ball under One-Point Rolling Contact

Tribological fatigue failure of the machined PEEK shaft was investigated through the one-point type rolling contact fatigue test between a PEEK shaft and an alumina ball, in order to explore fatigue fracture mechanism of frictional parts working at high frequency in various mechanical elements. Due to Hertzian contact of cyclic compressive stress, the subsurface crack occurred within approximately 300 μm depth from thesurface and propagated along the rolling direction. After that, the subsurface crack propagation direction changed toward the surface. The flaking occurred on the raceway of the PEEK shaft when the subsurface crack reached to the PEEK shaft surface.