Grinding Thin-Walled Rings Using Force-Adaptive Error Compensation To

The object of this research is to provide an improved method of grinding antifriction bearing rings at lower cost but of higher quality. Current production practice requires an external grinding machine to grind the outside diameters (OD), and an internal grinding machine to grind the internal diameters (ID). This study seeks a method of grinding the OD and ID on one machine, thereby eliminating the tooling cost, setup, maintenance, and capital costs required for one grinding machine. The method focuses on a device for holding and driving thin-walled rings without distortion while providing access for the OD and ID grinding wheels. Out-of-roundness errors are compensated by using force sensors and "force-adaptive" grinding technique.