Society of Automotive Engineers, a trade and standards organization.

The standard method for identifying the chemical makeup of various steels. Also known as the AISI system.

Note that the content percentages are approximations; steel is rarely free from contamination by other elements. These contaminants are generally called inclusions and noted in the documentation which is supplied with the shipment.

The system identifies steels by a 4-digit or 5-digit code:

First digit : the major alloying element
1___ - carbon
2___ - nickel
3___ - nickel-chromium
4___ - molybdenum
5___ - chromium
6___ - chromium-vanadium
7___ - tungsten
8___ - nickel-chromium-molybdenum
9___ - silicon-manganese

Second digit : approximate percentage of the major allowing element
examples:
_1___ - 1%
_3___ - 3%
52___ - chromium steel with 2% chromium

Third and Fourth digits : approximate carbon content, as a fractional percent
examples:
__30 - 0.30% carbon
__50 - 0.50% carbon
5150 - chromium steel with 1% chromium and 0.50% carbon
52100 - chromium steel with 2% chromium and 1.00% carbon

An engineering fatigue failure analysis tool. S-N diagrams plot the relationship of stress, S, and the number of cycles, N, before fracture failure occurs during fatigue testing.

Chipping, fragmentation, or separation of a surface or surface coating.

Spalling is a common cause of bearing race failure, most commonly when they are subjected to contamination, impact or overloading / overheating.

Patented in 1924 by U.S. inventor Winslow S. Pierce, Jr.

A Pierce-style split ball bearing has an inner race which has been precision fractured, without loss of material, to ease installation on a shaft. Once installed, the inner race presents a smooth undamaged surface for the rolling elements.

A production method for and/or description of a type of ion plating process, usually for engine bearings.

The history of the sputter electroplating process for bearings holds that it is a technology borrowed from the electronics industry, intended at first only as an as an environmentally superior way to manufacture lead-inclusion plain bearings. Sputter coatings were found to offer superior mechanical strength over standard plating techniques, and the process produces none of plating's problematic waste streams. Done properly, sputter coating produces bearings with uniform, thin coatings that have significantly higher load-bearing capacity. Production methods, however, require replacing the standard plating process with initially expensive high-tech processes and equipment.

The production process used is termed Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). Performed in a vacuum, the relatively low-temperature process holds the bearing shell and its coating material separately. The coating material is bombarded with inert gas ions; knocked loose, the coating material redeposits on the shell in an even layer that has a strong molecular-level mechanical grip to the substrate.

As the technology matures, a wider variety of materials are being deposited on a wider variety of substrates.

When riveted (metal) retainers are used in a max capacity bearing, stay rods are the long fasteners used to hold the retainers together.

A change in the properties of a material that occurs after a cold-working operation.