A Study of Hub Bearing Seal with New Design for Low Torque 2013-01-0029

Automobile's hub bearing seals are the key functional parts that are mounted to 4 driving shaft wheels to prevent muddy water and foreign substances that flow into the wheel bearing, which ensure air tightness of bearing parts and maximize driving efficiency through smooth operation. Especially, design structure of bearing seal, which is the core part of driving wheel, and abrasion characteristics of its rubber material have direct relationship with durability of driving wheel parts and driving efficiency. In this study, we modified the design for existing seal's lip area to minimize the maximum stress applied to bearing seal's lip area which will ensure seal's performance, and to improve durability. After this, we manufactured prototype and carried out seal's performance evaluation. To do this, we compared contact load and stress between existing seal and design modified seal using finite element analysis, and proved the optimized design validity of bearing seal by verifying it with rotational torque and muddy water durability test which have direct influence to durability.