ELID groove grinding of ball-bearing raceway and the accuracy durability of the grinding wheel

Abstract

The groove profile of ball-bearing raceway is of vital importance to ensure the bearing transmission accuracy. It is an attempt to apply electrolytic in-process dressing (ELID) groove grinding for the ball-bearing raceway finishing process. The wear rate of the grinding wheel is directly related to the profile accuracy of the bearing raceway. In order to maintain a high-forming accuracy, the interrupt truing has to be performed at the grinding interval. However, how to rationally plan the grinding interval for high-forming accuracy is hard to resort to the general concept of the wear of the grinding wheel. This study recorded the raceway profile variation on axial direction and radial direction by monitor points. The results show that the raceway profile variation (monitor points) on the axial direction could be omitted, because it is far less than the profile variation (monitor points) on radial direction. An evaluation method was proposed to plan the interrupt truing based on the raceway profile variation (monitor points) on radial direction. Finally, the feasibility of the proposed evaluation method was verified by the experimental results. The evaluation method of forming accuracy could provide a reference for selecting the truing interruption during ELID groove grinding process. The approach that incorporates the interrupt truing with the ELID groove grinding enriches bearing manufacturing method. The ELID groove grinding has a great potential for application in precision machining of ball bearing ring raceway.