Surface texturing of rolling elements by hard ball-end milling and burnishing

Constant velocity joint shafts are machine elements within the driveshaft of cars. The tribological conditions within the raceways are characterized by mixed friction. To improve the lifetime of these machine elements, surface topography and surface integrity have to be adjusted. The positive effect of subsurface compressive residual stresses on the rolling fatigue strength for roller bearings is well known. Additionally, the positive effects of surface textures on tribological conditions in the mixed friction regime are known from cylinder liners. Within this paper, a novel approach to generate tribologically optimized surfaces by hard ball-end milling and an additional mechanical surface treatment by roller burnishing is tested and applied. First, the effects of both processes on the resulting surface topography are analyzed separately. In addition, the interactions between ball-end milling and burnishing are investigated. Concluding, this paper provides parameters to generate a plateau surface by the combination of ball-end milling and roller burnishing.