Abstract: Cold rolling ball groove section ring is a new technology for manufacturing ball groove bearing race. By using ABAQUS, a 3D elastic-plastic dynamic explicit FE model of ball groove section ring rolled from rectangle section blank is built according to the actual working condition of cold ring rolling process. Through dynamic explict FE simulation, the cold ring rolling process is studied and diameter growth rule and circularity variation rule of ball groove section ring is outlined. According to the simulation results, the rectangle section ring blank dimension and process parameters are optimized. For verifying the optimized dimension and process parameters, a series of cold ring rolling experiments are conducted in the D56G90 cold ring rolling mill. The simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. The ball groove bearing race is successfully rolled from rectangle section blank.

Key words: Ball groove section ring, Cold ring rolling, Finite element method, Technology design, Micro-structure, Surface drag reduction, Surface of aerostatic linear guideway, V groove, Ultra precision machine tools