Dovetail grooves were once a common design feature of Babbitt bearings. The grooves were a mechanical featured that help bond the Babbitt to the bearing backing. With the development of better bounding techniques, dovetail grooves became not only unnecessary, but a detriment to performance and reliability.
This topic has been covered by TRI many time. We made a video in 2016 explaining the problem.
Bearing Dovetail Grooves | Dr. Mel’s Technical Notes (wordpress.com)
Today we received a bearing with dovetail grooves. The photos perfectly highlight the issue explained in the video.
