Green ball grinding method, ceramic sphere fabrication method, and grinding apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9452503-B2
Application number	US-201514704620-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 5, 2015
Priority date	Sep 29, 2009
Publication date	Sep 27, 2016
Grant date	Sep 27, 2016

Abstract

A green ball grinding method includes the step of supplying a green ball between a first surface of a first member and a second surface of a second member constituting a grinding apparatus, and the step of grinding the green ball between the first surface and the second surface while the green ball rotates around its own axis and in orbital motion. In the step of grinding the green ball, the step of causing the green ball grinding to proceed while applying load between the green ball and each of the first surface and the second surface, and the step of modifying the rotation axis of the green ball by reducing the load lower than in the step of causing the green ball grinding to proceed are executed alternately.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A grinding apparatus for carrying out grinding of a green ball between a first member and second member
said first member having a first surface,
said second member having a second surface facing said first surface,
said green ball being located between said first surface and said second surface during grinding,
said second surface has a first region and a second region constituting an entirety of the second surface, said first region being spaced apart from said first surface by a first distance, and said second region is a sloped region wherein a distance between the first member and the second member is greater than said first distance and increases along a direction extending away from said first region,
wherein the first region defines a first surface area corresponding to the entire first region, the second region defines a second surface area corresponding to the entire second region, and the first surface area is approximately the same as the second surface area, and
the grinding apparatus is configured to grind said green ball, wherein when said green ball is between said first surface and said first region said green ball experiences a first load, and when said green ball is between said first surface and said second region said green ball experiences a second load lower than said first load, wherein said second load is substantially zero.

Assignees

• Hayakawa Yasutake
• Muramatsu Katsutoshi
• Ntn Toyo Bearing Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hayakawa Yasutake
• Muramatsu Katsutoshi

Classifications

• B24B37/025

  designed for working spherical surfaces · CPC title

• B23P17/04

  characterised by the nature of the material involved or the kind of product independently of its shape · CPC title

• B21K1/02

  balls, rolls, or rollers, e.g. for bearings · CPC title

• Y10T29/49996

  Successive distinct removal operations · CPC title

• B21H1/14

  balls, rollers, cone rollers, or like bodies · CPC title