Influence of Supporting Characteristics on Sphericity of Ceramic Balls in Rotated Dual-Plates Lapping Process

Ceramic balls have become an important component in advanced bearings, and the sphericity of balls is a key qualification focused in lapping process. An investigation on the effect of dynamic behavior of ball support system on the performance of ball lapping in rotated dual-plates lapping method is carried out. Sinusoidal waveform in terms of Fourier analysis is employed to express the shape error of the ball surface, and a dynamic model for support is setup. It is found with numerical calculation that the variation of lapping load lags behind the variation of the shape error for the damping of support. A lower natural frequency of the support system, higher spin speed of balls and a larger value of spin angle in RDP lapping are better to rectify the shape error of balls and reduce the lagged effect. It is concluded that dynamics of lapping system must be taken into consideration in order to understand comprehensively the spherical surface generation mechanism.