The steel ball is the core component of the rolling bearing, and its performance directly affects the life and running stability of the bearing. This paper describes the processing technology of steel ball, including material selection, processing technology and equipment, and quality control methods, and discusses how to improve the quality and durability of steel ball.
Key words: steel ball; Processing technology; Quality control; durability
1. Material selection
Steel balls are usually made of GCr15 wire, which is widely used because of its moderate price and easy heat treatment. For special applications, such as corrosion-resistant environments or high temperature conditions, more specialized materials such as stainless steel, high-speed tool steel (tungsten series steel) or M50 heat-resistant steel are selected. These special materials require more complex heat treatment processes, increasing the cost.
2. Processing technology and equipment
Domestic steel ball manufacturing has a high level of production technology and equipment, forming a series of processing processes from cold heading to finishing, grinding, grinding. The key equipment includes cold heading machine, light ball machine, ball grinding machine, ball lapping machine and protective atmosphere heat treatment furnace. However, there are still some challenges, such as the stability and reliability of high-speed cold headers to be improved, the degree of automation of some processing equipment is not high, and the specialization of cleaning and drying processes is insufficient.
3. Quality control
In order to ensure the quality of steel balls, manufacturers have established a complete quality control system, covering raw material inspection, dimensional accuracy, hardness testing and surface defect inspection. In particular, as technology advances, companies are able to better control subtle characteristics such as dimensional stability, surface strengthening and corrugation. At the same time, in order to prevent unqualified products from leaving the factory, the application of high-function automated appearance inspection instruments has become crucial.
4. Strategies to improve durability
The possible contact fatigue failure of steel balls can be divided into two types: internal origin type spalling and surface origin type spalling. The former is mainly prevented by improving the purity of materials; The latter relies on improving the use environment, optimizing lubrication and enhancing surface treatments (such as carbonitriding) to reduce surface damage and extend service life.
5. Application of emerging materials
Faced with the increasing demand for high-speed and high-temperature applications, ceramic balls (such as Si₃N₄) are gradually emerging as an alternative, although currently facing the problem of higher costs, but its application prospects are broad.
Continuous improvement of steel ball manufacturing technology and quality control means is of great significance to improve the overall performance of bearings. The future direction of development is not only to improve the quality of traditional steel balls, but also to explore the application of new materials to meet the changing application needs.
