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Limited fossil fuel resources, air pollution, and global warming all drive strengthening of fuel economy and vehicle emission standards globally. Much R&D continues to be dedicated to improve fuel efficiency of automobiles and to reduce exhaust gasses. These include improvement of engine/driveline performance for higher efficiency, development of alternative energy, and minimization of air resistance through aerodynamic design optimization. OEM weight reduction-focused research has extended into chassis components (steering knuckle, brakes, control arms, etc.) in sequence from body-in-white(BIW). Wheel bearings, one of the core components of a driveline and part of a vehicle’s unsprung mass, are also being required to reduce weight. Conventionally, wheel bearings have achieved “lightweighting” primarily through design optimization methods. They have been highly optimized today using steel based materials.

Through transmitting power and carrying vehicle weight, automotive wheel bearings play an important role. Counterbalancing the bearing responsibilities, they also are designed to last the life of a vehicle without servicing. When mounted to the vehicle steering knuckle by bolts, distortion occurs to the outer ring. Performance is affected when distortion takes place at the seal mounting location and raceways. Finite element analysis using commercial software was performed to analyze the outer ring distortion. Elasto-plastic and contact analyses were carried out to compute the clamping behavior of the outer ring, bolts and the knuckle under various conditions. To verify the reliability of this study, the distortion of the outer ring was measured. The experimental results proved to be comparative with the analysis results.