DE 11 2004 002 481 T5 discloses a turbocharger of this type with a high-power rolling bearing, an angular ball bearing. Said turbocharger has a turbine wheel which drives a compressor wheel of the turbocharger via a rotatably mounted shaft. According to DE 11 2004 002 481 T5, said high-speed shaft is mounted via two angular ball bearings which support the shaft in relation to a positionally fixed housing.
Ball bearings, for example angular ball bearings or deep-groove ball bearings, are sufficiently known and generally have an inner ring, an outer ring and rolling bodies or balls arranged in a circumferential direction between the inner ring and the outer ring. The balls are kept at a distance distributed uniformly over the circumference using a ball bearing cage.
Ball bearing cages of various designs, for example sheet-metal cages or solid cages, made of various materials, for example sheet steel, brass, light metal, sintered iron, fabric-reinforced laminate, and of different structural forms, for example window cages, snap-type cages or a riveted cage, are also known.
In particular in the case of ball bearings of high-speed shafts, for example turbine shafts, cage instabilities occur, i.e. the cages of high-speed ball bearings of this type are excited, which leads to juddering, vibrations, erratic or chaotic movements of the cage, and/or to shock-like loading on cage run-up surfaces. This effect is reinforced in particular in the event of excitations in a resonance range of the cage. As a further consequence, these effects may lead to overheating of the ball bearing, decomposition of the lubricant or even to destruction of the ball bearing. Cage instabilities of this type are usually also accompanied by increased abnormal bearing noises.
JP 2006105273 A discloses a ball bearing with “asymmetrically” arranged balls. In said “asymmetrical ball bearing,” which is intended to contribute to a reduction in the vibration and noise of the ball bearing, the balls are distributed asymmetrically over the circumference of the ball bearing in such a manner that two different distances between in each case two adjacent balls are formed in the circumferential direction of the ball bearing. In this case, a first large ball distance (RL) is one and a half times as large as a second small ball distance (RS), or RL=3/2*RS.