Compensation of distortion by deep rolling of bearing rings

The production of thin-walled components such as bearing rings comes along with the risk of inducing deviations in shape and in dimension (distortion). The collaborative research center 570 "Distortion Engineering" investigates the distortion along the production line as well as the control and compensation of undesired deviations in single process steps. The presented experiments aim at inducing residual stresses by a deep rolling process in order to allow for the compensation of shape deviations. By a specific clamping strategy, a transfer of bending stresses in a targeted value was realized to utilize the known distortion potential of inhomogeneous residual stresses for affecting the shape in a desired way. It is shown, that varying the clamping position, the deep rolling force or the clamping force carries the potential for manipulating the component's shape significantly. Consequently, deep rolling is a promising alternative for the compensation of distortion.