FEA Modelling of the Combined Hard TurningRolling Process Used at Bearing Rings

Abstract

In general, the production of bearings is a very large series production, which is why in production the technological lines are designed to process a single size of bearings. Changing the production line for different types of bearings is expensive and time consuming, especially where grinding and honing processes are required. An alternative to these abrasive processes is hard turning. The literature indicates that due to highprecision machines, the accuracy of hard-turned parts is comparable to grinding processes. It is also indicated that the integrity of the surface and the topography of the surface together with the residual induced stresses are parameters of interest and that influence the performance of the bearings. So one method of increasing the durability of the bearings is to ensure a low roughness of the elements and high residual induced stresses. Deep rolling is considered as an alternative to honing and rectification processes. Rolling can induce higher surface stresses in the material compared to honing and grinding. The present paper proposes a combined cutting tool made of a hard turning head and a rolling cutting tool for machining bearing rings. A simulation of this combined process is performed with the help of the finite element and thus the internal stress field, the temperature fieldand the topography of the processed surface aredetermined.