Ring for a bearing, an inner ring, an outer ring, and a bearing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9976596-B2
Application number	US-201415106454-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2014
Priority date	Dec 18, 2013
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

The invention provides a ring for a bearing. The invention further provides an inner ring, an outer ring and the bearing. The ring includes a raceway ring being a hardened steel metal ring providing a raceway surface configured and constructed for guiding rolling elements of the bearing. The ring further provides printed material bonded to the steel of the raceway ring. The printed material being material printed via an additive manufacturing process. The printed material may be used to customize a shape of the ring, for example, of the inner ring or the outer ring of the bearing, thus allowing flexible customization.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A bearing, comprising:
a first raceway ring and a second raceway ring, the first raceway ring having a raceway surface configured to contact a rolling element and having a rear surface located opposite to the raceway surface, the raceway surface and the rear surface being connected via a first radially extending axial surface and a second radially extending axial surface, the first raceway ring defining a plurality of indentations each overlapping an edge between the rear surface and one of the first and second radially extending axial surfaces;
a first material printed using an additive process over the first raceway ring to form a first ring, the first material also being disposed within the plurality of indentations and increasing attachment between the first material and the first raceway ring, wherein the first material is printed so as to form a plurality of cavities in the first ring that are spaced from the first raceway ring;
a second material printed using an additive process over the second raceway ring to form a second ring such that the second raceway ring is configured to contact the rolling element; and
the rolling element positioned between the first ring and the second ring and contacting the first raceway ring and the second raceway ring, wherein the first raceway ring further comprises an attachment element formed by at least one of: (1) a circumferential groove in circumferential direction, and (2) a coating applied to at least a part of the raceway ring.

2. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the attachment element is the circumferential groove, the first material being printed in the circumferential groove and forming a bond between the first material and the first raceway ring.

3. The bearing of claim 2 , wherein a contact area is an area where the rolling element contacts the first raceway surface, and wherein the circumferential groove is only present outside of the contact area.

4. The bearing of claim 2 , wherein the first material is printed on and bonded to the first raceway ring only outside the contact area.

5. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the raceway surface has a non-stressed area in circumferential direction between a contact area and an edge of the first raceway ring, the raceway surface having the attachment element only in the non-stressed area.

6. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the first ring has a flange constructed and configured for at least partially supporting the rolling element of the bearing in a direction parallel to a rotation axis of the first ring.

7. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the first material is at least one of: (1) a structural material for carrying a load for strengthening the first raceway ring, (2) a press-fit element for fitting the first ring to at least one of a shaft and to a bore, (3) a flange constructed and configured for at least partially supporting the rolling element of the bearing in a direction parallel to a rotational axis (A) of the first ring, (4) a support structure for supporting the first ring, or (5) a non-circular construction.

8. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein a dimension of the raceway ring in a direction perpendicular to a rotational axis (A) of the first ring is more than 15% of a width of the contact area.

9. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the first material is a metal having a granular structure.

10. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the first material is chosen from a list comprising steel, stainless steel, maraging steel, tool steel, low alloy steel, copper alloys, nickel alloys, cobalt alloys, aluminum, aluminum alloys, titanium, titanium alloys.

11. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the first raceway ring is an inner ring of the bearing, the raceway surface facing away from the rotational axis (A).

12. The bearing of claim 1 , wherein the first raceway ring is an outer ring of the bearing, the raceway surface facing towards the rotational axis (A).

Assignees

• Skf Ab

Inventors

• Krebs Philipp
• Ziegler Sebastian

Classifications

• B22F10/25

  Direct deposition of metal particles, e.g. direct metal deposition [DMD] or laser engineered net shaping [LENS] · CPC title

• B22F10/16

  by embedding the binder within the powder bed · CPC title

• B22F10/14

  by jetting of binder onto a bed of metal powder · CPC title

• B22F10/28

  Powder bed fusion, e.g. selective laser melting [SLM] or electron beam melting [EBM] · CPC title

• F16C19/364 Primary

  with tapered rollers, i.e. rollers having essentially the shape of a truncated cone · CPC title