Deformation-based micro surface texturing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9688015-B2
Application number	US-201414121920-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2014
Priority date	Dec 16, 2010
Publication date	Jun 27, 2017
Grant date	Jun 27, 2017

Abstract

A compact deformation-based micro-texturing apparatus and method employ flexure bearing houses for rotatably supporting opposite ends of each of a first (e.g. upper) roll and a second (e.g. lower) roll to provide a working roll gap between the rolls, wherein at least one of the rolls has one or more micro surface features to plastically deform a surface of a workpiece deformed by rolling action in the roll gap. An electrical current may be passed through the workpiece to assist micro deformation. A roll gap adjusting device is operably associated with the first and second flexure bearing houses for adjusting the roll gap dimension to the final depth of the micro surface features to be imparted to the surface of the workpiece by the rolling action. A sheet material or antifriction element (e.g. journal bearing or bushing) is produced having at least one surface that includes rolled-in micro surface depressions wherein depressions have a lateral dimension of about 1 μm to about 10 mm and a depth of about 1 μm to about 10 mm, typically a lateral dimension of about 1 μm to about 100 μm and a depth of about 1 μm to about 100 μm.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for surface texturing a metallic or non-metallic material, comprising:
passing a sheet material having a sheet thickness in the range of about 20 μm to about 1.5 mm through a roll gap formed between opposing rolls, at least one of which has one or more micro surface protrusions and/or recesses, wherein the micro surface depressions and/or recesses have a lateral dimension of about 1 μm to about 10 mm and a vertical dimension of about 1 μm to about 10 mm; and
forming one or more micro surface depressions and/or protrusions in the surface by said micro surface protrusion and/or recess plastically deforming the surface by rolling action.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sheet material is an antifriction element.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the lateral dimension is about 1 pm to about 100 pm and the vertical dimension is about 1 pm to about 100 pm.

Assignees

• Univ Northwestern

Inventors

• Cao Jian
• Zhou Rui
• Ehmann Kornel F

Classifications

• B32B9/00

  Layered products comprising a {layer of a} particular substance not covered by groups B32B11/00 - B32B29/00 · CPC title

• B32B2307/746

  Slipping, anti-blocking, low friction · CPC title

• B29C59/04 Primary

  using rollers or endless belts · CPC title

• Y10T428/24355

  Continuous and nonuniform or irregular surface on layer or component [e.g., roofing, etc.] · CPC title

• B29C2059/023

  Microembossing · CPC title