Material selection for long life and high durability for special purpose type of flexure bearing

A special type of flexure bearings are installed to support a compressor motor and a displacer within a cryocooler which is used in space applications. The fatigue life of spring is a critical factor for such applications, to ensure that the cryocooler does not fail. The flexure spring is used in the setup of an eccentric type of flexure bearing. The present study analyzes various significant parameters and properties in selecting the best suitable material to achieve finite-fatigue life. To avoid a failure of such critical component, batch testing is carried out. The three materials which are compared with respective SN-curve are a] beryllium copper, b] Stainless Steel (3 0 4) and c] Titanium. The study has been carried out to find the best suitable material for flexure bearing. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used to understand flexure springs stress and displacement.