Method for manufacturing a rolling element bearing

摘要

A method for manufacturing a rolling-element bearing includes forming an inner ring from a steel having a sulfur content of 0.002 to 0.015 mass % and an oxygen content of less than 15 ppm, subjecting the inner ring to a hardening heat treatment that ends by performing a final heat treatment step at a predetermined temperature, cold working the inner-ring raceway to generate compressive residual stresses at least in a surface layer of the inner-ring raceway, subjecting the inner ring to a bluing treatment and subjecting the blued inner ring to a thermal post-treatment process at a temperature below the predetermined temperature of the final hardening heat treatment step. The resulting rolling-element bearing may exhibit compressive residual stresses having an absolute value of at least 200 MPa at 0.1 mm beneath the outer surface of the inner-ring raceway and a maximum value of 1500 MPa or less throughout the inner ring.

主权项

1. A method for manufacturing a rolling-element bearing, which includes an inner ring having an inner-ring raceway, an outer ring having an outer-ring raceway and a plurality of rolling elements that are rollable on the inner-ring raceway and on the outer-ring raceway, the method comprising:
forming the inner ring from a steel having a sulfur content of 0.002 to 0.015 mass % and an oxygen content of less than 15 ppm, subjecting the inner ring to a heat treatment to harden it, which heat treatment ends by performing a final hardening heat treatment step at a predetermined temperature, cold working the inner-ring raceway to generate compressive residual stresses at least in a surface layer of the inner-ring raceway, subjecting the cold-worked inner ring to a bluing treatment to form a blued layer on an outer surface of the inner ring, and subjecting the blued inner ring to a thermal post-treatment process at a temperature below the predetermined temperature of the final hardening heat treatment step.