Abstract
The shot peening treatment were conducted for improving the strength of rolling contact fatigue of machine element like a gear. This paper was undertaken to analyze the influence of shot peening treatment for inner race of ball bearing on the rolling contact fatigue. Shot peening treatment were applied to the full hardened and the carbonitrided bearing. And the rolling contact fatigue life test and X-ray diffraction test were carried out. The results of this study showed that the fatigue life of ball bearing in the clean and the contaminated oil could be improved by shot peening treatment. This effect was found to be more pronounced to the full hardened bearing. These facts might be due to the generation of compressive residual stress and the strain hardening of surface layer by shot peening treatment. The failure of the shot peened bearing were presumed to initiate at surface.