Research on the manufacturing of deep-groove ball bearing inner rings via the cold rolling of tube material

To improve the preparation rate of bearing rings and improve the utilization rate of materials, a new preparation process for bearing rings, namely, the cold rolling of bearing rings with tube materials, was proposed in this paper. Single raceway rolling and double raceway rolling processes were proposed, and the rolling die and blanks were designed according to rolling theory. Finite element simulation was carried out in Abaqus. The influences of drive roller speed, mandrel initial feed speed, and deceleration steps on the rolling process in single- and double-raceway cold rolling processes were analysed, and the process parameters were optimized. The regularity of metal flow on the surface of the tube material during cold rolling was investigated. An experimental platform was built, which included a cold rolling machine, a force testing device, and a torque testing device. The accuracy of the simulation was demonstrated by measuring cold rolling force and rolling torque during the testing process. The hardness and dimensional accuracy of the rolled product were measured. The results showed that the rolled product had high dimensional precision and good surface quality, which demonstrates the feasibility of the tube material rolling process proposed in this paper.