A tapered roller bearing includes an inner ring having a tapered raceway surface and a large-collar surface on a large-diameter side of the raceway surface, and tapered rollers. Each of the rollers has a large end surface guided by the large-collar surface. When R represents a set curvature radius of the large end surface and R.sub.BASE represents a base curvature radius from a vertex of a cone angle of each of the tapered rollers to the large-collar surface, the base curvature radius R.sub.BASE is 100 mm or less, and a ratio R/R.sub.BASE of the set curvature radius R to the base curvature radius R.sub.BASE is set to 0.90 or less. When R.sub.ACTUAL represents an actual curvature radius of the large end surface of each of the tapered rollers, a ratio R.sub.ACTUAL/R of the actual curvature radius R.sub.ACTUAL to the set curvature radius R exceeds 0.5.

A rolling bearing is a tapered roller bearing, a cylindrical roller bearing, or a deep groove ball bearing including an inner ring, an outer ring, and a rolling element, each of the inner ring, the outer ring, and the rolling element being composed of a steel, the rolling bearing having a quench-hardened layer in at least one of an inner ring raceway surface of the inner ring, an outer ring raceway surface of the outer ring, and a rolling contact surface of the rolling element. A ratio of a total area of a plurality of martensite crystal grains in the quench-hardened layer is more than or equal to 70%. The plurality of martensite crystal grains are classified into a first group and a second group. An average grain size of the martensite crystal grains belonging to the first group is less than or equal to 0.97 μm.

An example bushing of a hydraulic hammer tool includes a bulk region and an inner region. The inner region has a relatively greater hardness than the bulk region. The inner region may also be compressively stressed, while the bulk region may have tensile stress. The stress and/or hardness profile of the bushing may enhance its resistance to wear and galling defects when a hammer of the hydraulic hammer tool is held in alignment by the bushing. The bulk region of the bushing may be relatively soft, resulting in the bushing having a relatively high level of toughness. The bushing may be formed using medium to high carbon steel by rough forming the bushing, hardening the bushing, tempering the bushing, induction hardening the inner region of the bushing, and then quenching the inner region.

A method for controlling carbide network in a bearing steel wire rod by controlling cooling and rolling, comprises the following steps: rapidly rolling a bar to a wire rod and spinning it into a loose coil, controlling the rolling temperature at 780° C.-880° C.; and the spinning temperature at 750° C.-850° C.; carrying out on-line controlling cooling of continuous loose coils using EDC water bath austempering cooling process, controlling the cooling rate at 2.0° C./s-10° C./s, and controlling the final cooling temperature within 620-630° C.; after EDC water bath austempering cooling, using slow cooling under a cover, and the temperature is controlled to be 400° C.-500° C. when being removed out of the cover; after slow cooling, collecting coils, and cooling in air to the room temperature.

A bearing component such as a bearing ring includes a metallic base body and at least one alloy steel coating on the base body, the coating being applied to the base body by deposition welding. The base body is preferably non-alloy steel or cast iron, and the alloy includes at least one carbide-forming transition metal such as niobium, tantalum, zirconium, titanium, hafnium, tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, or manganese. The coating can form a raceway of the bearing component or a structural element such as a flange. Also a method of forming such a bearing component is provided.

An example bushing of a hydraulic hammer tool includes an outer region and an inner region. The inner region has a relatively greater hardness than the outer region. The inner region may also be compressively stressed, while the outer region may have tensile stress. The stress and/or hardness profile of the bushing may enhance its resistance to wear and galling defects when a hammer of the hydraulic hammer tool is held in alignment by the bushing. The outer region of the bushing may be relatively soft, resulting in the bushing having a relatively high level of toughness. The bushing may be formed using medium to high carbon steel by rough forming the bushing, hardening the bushing, tempering the bushing, and induction softening the outer region of the bushing.

A nodular iron alloy and automotive components, such as a crankshaft, are provided. The nodular iron alloy may include iron, about 2.2-3.2 wt % carbon, about 1.7-2.3 wt % silicon, about 0.2-0.6 wt % manganese, a maximum of 0.03 wt % phosphorus, a maximum of 0.02 wt % sulfur, about 0.2-0.6 wt % copper, about 0.1-0.4 wt % chromium, about 0.4-0.8 wt % nickel, about 0.15-0.45 wt % molybdenum, about 0.2-1.0 wt % cobalt, about 0.02-0.06 wt % magnesium, and a maximum of 0.002 wt % rare earth element(s). The nodular iron alloy may have a Young's modulus in the range of 175-195 GPa and an as-cast ultimate tensile strength in the range of 750-950 MPa. This alloy possesses favorable strength, stiffness and noise/vibration/harshness qualities, making it suitable in crankshaft applications. A method of forming the nodular iron alloy includes feeding a magnesium-based material into a molten iron alloy through a continuous system at a constant amount.

A steel alloy for a bearing, the alloy having a composition that provides: from 0.8 to 1.0 wt. % carbon, from 0.1 to 0.5 wt. % silicon, from 0.2 to 0.9 wt. % manganese, from 2.0 to 3.3 wt. % chromium, from 0 to 0.4 wt. % molybdenum, from 0 to 0.2 wt. % cobalt, from 0 to 0.2 wt. % iridium, from 0 to 0.2 wt. % rhenium, from 0 to 0.2 wt. % vanadium, from 0 to 0.1 wt. % niobium, from 0 to 0.5 wt. % tungsten, from 0 to 0.2 wt. % nickel, from 0 to 0.4 wt. % copper, from 0 to 0.05 wt. % aluminum, from 0 to 150 ppm nitrogen, and the balance iron, together with any unavoidable impurities.

A wheel bearing arrangement for a vehicle, comprising at least one roller bearing, wherein at least one of the roller bearings is a ball bearing, which includes an inner ring and an outer ring, wherein both rings have raceways for balls being located between the rings. To ensure a sufficient lifetime of the roller bearings and to minimize the friction in the bearing, the at least one of the rings of the bearing arrangement is made from a ball bearing steel produced by a powder metallurgical process using a powder metallurgy component including 0.5 to 2.0 weight-% C, a maximum of 0.035 weight-% S, 3.0 to 5.0 weight-% Cr, 1.0 to 4.0 weight-% V, 1.0 to 12.0 weight-% W and 2.0 to 12.0 weight-% Mo, wherein at least one raceway has a radius and the balls have a diameter which fulfills the equation: radius/diameter>0.53.

A bearing steel includes, as a metallographic structure, inclusions which contain complex oxysulfides including Rare Earth Metal, Ca, O, S, and Al, TiN, MnS, Al.sub.2O.sub.3, and complex oxides including Al and Ca, wherein, a number fraction of the complex oxysulfides in a total number of the inclusions is 50% to less than 100% and a number of complex oxysulfides having a major axis of 5 μm or more is 0.001 pieces to 2 pieces in an observed section of 1 mm.sup.2, and a number of TiN existing independently from the complex oxysulfides and having a major axis of 5 μm or more is 0.001 pieces to less than 1.0 piece in an observed section of 1 mm.sup.2.