Research on bearing ring processing mechanism by barrel finishing based on granular media flow behavior

The bearing ring is the critical component of bearings, which play an important role in any rotary mechanism. A better finishing surface quality of bearing rings would improve their performance. Nevertheless, one of the challenges is to realize overall uniformity finishing under the condition that non-destructive clamping. Accordingly, this paper proposed a bearing ring processing method based on barrel finishing, which can realize overall uniformity finishing by the floating clamp of bearing ring. The granular media flow behavior is methodically set up by discrete element method (DEM) simulation, which is a vital issue in the mass finishing industry. Then the finishing experiments are conducted to investigate the surface roughness and morphology. The effect of vessel rotation speed, granular media filling level, and configuration of support bars on granular media flowability was firstly investigated. And then the effect of granular media flowability on bearing ring processing mechanism was further studied. The results show that the better flowability of granular media, the greater media kinetic energy reaching the surface of bearing ring, which means the erosion behavior is intensive. The higher collision behavior between media and bearing ring occurs when the cataracting pattern is dominant. The results indicate that the optimal finishing performance would be obtained at the rotation speed of 40 rpm, filling level of 80 %, and the configuration of support bars of 350 mm. After finishing experiment, the surface roughness and morphology of all surfaces were improved.