SLEEVE-TYPE GRINDING TOOL FOR FINISHING OF ROLLING SURFACES OF BEARING ROLLERS AND A GRINDING DEVICE THEREOF

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims foreign priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202311102330.7, filed on Aug. 19, 2023 in the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the disclosures of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to the technical field of bearing rollers finishing technology, in particular to a sleeve-type grinding tool for finishing of rolling surfaces of bearing rollers and a grinding device thereof.

BACKGROUND

Roller bearings are widely used in various rotating machinery. As one of the essential components of roller bearings, the consistency of the dimensions of the rolling surfaces of the bearing rollers significantly affects the performance of the roller bearings.

Currently, the known machining process for the rolling surfaces of bearing rollers includes the following steps: blank forming (turning, cold heading, or rolling), rough machining (soft grinding of the rolling surfaces), heat treatment, semi-finishing (hard grinding of the rolling surfaces), and finishing. The main process methods for finishing the rolling surface are centerless grinding and ultra-precision grinding. However, due to the principles of the centerless grinding and ultra-precision grinding processes, it is challenging to effectively improve the diameter dispersion of the rolling surface of bearing rollers.

Chinese patent CN113524018A discloses a suite of tools, equipment, and methods for finishing the rolling surfaces of cylindrical rollers. The equipment includes a main machine, an external circulation equipment, a grinding tool suite, and a grinding tool suite fixture. The grinding tool suite consists of a grinding sleeve and a grinding bar assembly. The inner surface of the grinding sleeve is equipped with a cylindrical spiral groove, and the grinding bar assembly includes multiple grinding bars arranged in a circumferential cylindrical array, each having linear grooves on the front. The external circulation equipment includes a collection unit, a sorting unit, a feeding unit, and a transmission subsystem. During the grinding process, the path of the cylindrical roller in the external circulation equipment is: from the outlet of the cylindrical spiral groove, it passes through the collection unit, the sorting unit, the feeding unit, and enters the cylindrical spiral groove.

Chinese patent CN113601277A discloses a suite of tools, equipment, and methods for finishing the rolling surfaces of conical rollers. The equipment includes a main machine, an external circulation equipment, a tool suite, and a tool suite fixture. Similar to the previous patent, the tool suite includes a grinding sleeve and a grinding bar assembly, with a cylindrical spiral groove on the inner surface of the grinding sleeve and multiple grinding bars arranged in a circumferential cylindrical array with linear grooves on the front. The external circulation equipment also includes a collection unit, a sorting unit, a feeding unit, and a transmission subsystem. In this case, the path of the conical roller in the external circulation equipment is: from the outlet of the cylindrical spiral groove, it passes through the collection unit, the sorting unit, the feeding unit, and enters the cylindrical spiral groove.

Chinese patent document CN113524014A discloses a suite of tools, equipment, and methods for finishing the rolling surface of spherical rollers. This equipment also includes a main machine, an external circulation equipment, a tool suite, and a tool suite fixture. The tool suite includes a grinding sleeve and a grinding bar assembly, with the inner surface of the grinding sleeve featuring a first spiral groove, and the grinding bar assembly including multiple grinding bars arranged in a circumferential cylindrical array, with linear grooves or a second spiral groove on the front. The external circulation equipment includes collection, sorting, feeding units, and a transmission subsystem. In this case, the path of the cylindrical roller in the external circulation equipment is: from the outlet of the spiral groove, then passes through the collection unit, the sorting unit, the feeding unit, and enters the first spiral groove.

The processing methods disclosed in the above patents belong to precision evolution processing methods, capable of removing more material from the rolling surfaces of larger diameter bearing rollers and less material from those with smaller diameters, which is beneficial for improving the dimensional consistency of the rolling surfaces of bearing rollers under mass production conditions. However, the unique structure of the working surfaces of the grinding sleeve leads to the following issues when grinding bearing rollers using the aforementioned techniques:

For the Chinese patent CN113601277A, the inner surface of the grinding sleeve is designed with a cylindrical spiral groove. Due to the existence of the helical angle of the spiral groove, the contact line of the working surfaces of the grinding sleeve cannot completely cover the spherical base surface at the larger end of the conical roller, which affects the profile accuracy of the spherical base surface.

For the grinding of spherical rollers with spherical bases, the Chinese patent CN113524014A sets a first spiral groove on the inner surface of the grinding sleeve and a second spiral groove on the grinding bar. Although this arrangement ensures that the contact line of the working surfaces of the grinding bar completely covers the spherical base surface of the spherical roller, it is extremely challenging to manufacture spiral grooves on the grinding bars.

For the Chinese patent CN113524014A, under the condition that the grinding bar assembly has a radial expansion function, a technical solution is provided for the radial inward contraction of the grinding sleeve to compensate for the wear of the first spiral groove working surfaces and thus ensure the profile accuracy of the rolling surface of the spherical roller. This makes the structure of the tool suite for this technical solution extremely complex, hindering its implementation.

The inner surface of the grinding sleeve in the aforementioned techniques are all designed with cylindrical spiral grooves. During the grinding process, the bearing rollers enter the grinding processing area from the entrance of the cylindrical spiral groove, and after one round of grinding, they exit the grinding processing area from the exit of the cylindrical spiral groove. The bearing rollers that exit the grinding processing area re-enter the grinding processing area through the entrance of the cylindrical spiral groove for the next round of grinding via the external circulation equipment. This process is continuously repeated, and the entry of the bearing rollers into the grinding processing area and their exit from the grinding processing area occur synchronously with the grinding process, which poses significant challenges to the quality and cadence of the roller collection, sorting, and feeding in the external circulation equipment.

SUMMARY

The bearing rollers described in the present disclosure refers to the processed bearing rollers. The bearing rollers can be cylindrical rollers, conical rollers, or spherical rollers, where the spherical rollers include symmetrical spherical rollers without ball base surfaces, symmetrical spherical rollers with ball base surfaces, and non-symmetrical spherical rollers. In the present disclosure, needle rollers are classified as cylindrical rollers. The surfaces of the cylindrical rollers include the rolling surface and the end surfaces of the cylindrical rollers, with the geometric reference point of the cylindrical rollers defined as their geometric centers. The surfaces of the conical rollers include the rolling surface and the reference end surface of the conical roller, where end of each conical roller with the spherical base surface are defined as reference end of each conical roller, and a cone angle of each conical roller is denoted as 2φ; and the geometric reference point of each conical roller is defined as the geometric center of each conical roller.

when the spherical rollers are spherical rollers without the ball base surfaces, the spherical roller surfaces include the rolling surface and the end surfaces of each spherical roller; when the spherical rollers are symmetrical spherical rollers with ball base surfaces or the asymmetrical spherical rollers with the ball base surfaces, the spherical roller surfaces include the rolling surface and reference end surfaces of each spherical rollers, with the ends of the spherical rollers including the spherical base surfaces being defined as the reference ends of the spherical rollers; the geometric reference point of each spherical roller is defined as a center of a maximum circular cross section of each spherical roller, with a maximum circular section diameter, or a nominal diameter, denoted as D; and curvature radius of an axial cross section profile of the rolling surfaces of the spherical rollers is denoted as R_c.

The conveying mechanism described in the present disclosure is used to transport the bearing rollers in a single line queue, with controlled posture, from one location to another. The conveying mechanism can be an existing technology such as a flat belt conveying mechanism, a double round belt conveying mechanism, or any conveying mechanism developed in the future for the purpose described in the present disclosure. The present disclosure does not impose restrictions on the structure of the conveying mechanism.

The lifting mechanism described in the present disclosure is used to lift the bearing rollers individually and in a single line queue with controlled posture from a lower position to a higher position. The lifting mechanism can be an existing technology such as a push plate lifting mechanism, a chain plate lifting mechanism, or any lifting mechanism developed in the future for the purpose described in the present disclosure. The present disclosure does not impose restrictions on the structure of the lifting mechanism.

To address the problems in the prior art, the present disclosure proposes a sleeve-type grinding tool and for finishing of rolling surfaces of bearing rollers and grinding device thereof. The sleeve-type grinding tool and grinding device not only have the capability to perform the finishing on the rolling surfaces of large quantities of bearing rollers but also meet the grinding requirements for the spherical bases of conical rollers and spherical rollers while simplifying the structure of the grinding tool. Additionally, it separates the process of the bearing rollers entering and exiting the grinding processing area from the grinding process, alleviating the workload of external circulation equipment while ensuring grinding precision and efficiency.

To solve the above technical problemd, the present disclosure provides a sleeve-type grinding tool for a finishing of rolling surfaces of bearing rollers, wherein including a grinding sleeve and a grinding shaft; during a grinding process, the grinding shaft passes through the grinding sleeve, and the grinding shaft is coaxial with the grinding sleeve.

Furthermore, an outer circumference of the grinding shaft is provided with a set of at least three linear grooves aligned with the inner peripheral surface of the grinding sleeve, where the linear grooves are distributed in a circumferential array, and the axis of a linear groove array is the axis of the grinding shaft; the surface of the linear groove that contacts the bearing roller during grinding is the working surfaces of the linear groove.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are cylindrical rollers or conical rollers, the grinding shaft is an assembly that includes a set of at least three grinding strips and a radial expansion component located at a center of the grinding shaft, with the linear grooves located on the grinding strips; the grinding strips are solidly connected to the radial expansion component or transition-connected to the radial expansion component via a grinding strip mounting base; the radial expansion component is configured to drive the linear groove array located on the grinding strips to synchronously expand radially outward along the grinding shaft and to transmit torque between a main machine of a grinding device and the grinding strips.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are spherical rollers, the grinding shaft is a single shaft-like part, with the linear grooves located on the outer peripheral surface of the shaft-like part; alternatively, the grinding shaft is a composite component formed by connecting multiple parts, which includes a base shaft and grinding strips with linear grooves, and the grinding strips are solidly connected to the outer peripheral surface of the base shaft.

Furthermore, an inner wall of the grinding sleeve is provided with a set of coaxial annular grooves of equal diameter, with an axis of the annular grooves being an axis of the grinding sleeve; during the grinding process, groove surfaces of the annular grooves that contact the bearing rollers are working surfaces of the annular grooves.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are cylindrical rollers or a conical rollers, the grinding sleeve is a single sleeve-like part.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are spherical rollers, the grinding sleeve includes an outer sleeve, a set of at least three grinding sleeve strips arranged in a circumferential array at a center of the grinding sleeve, and a radial contraction component located between the outer sleeve and the grinding sleeve strips; the annular grooves are intermittently distributed on the inner wall of the grinding sleeve, formed by front faces of the grinding sleeve strips, with gaps existing between adjacent grinding sleeve strips in the circumferential direction of the grinding sleeve to facilitate the synchronous radial contraction of the grinding sleeve strip array toward the center of the grinding sleeve; the grinding sleeve strips are solidly connected to the radial contraction component, or transition-connected to the radial contraction component via a grinding sleeve strip mounting base; the radial contraction component is configured to drive the grinding sleeve strip array to synchronously contract toward the center of the grinding sleeve during loading, and to transmit torque between the main machine of the grinding device and the grinding sleeve strips.

Furthermore, a grinding processing area is formed by a surrounding of the working surfaces of the annular grooves and the linear grooves; for each annular groove, an opening for the bearing rollers to enter or exit the grinding processing area is defined, the opening leads to an upper half of an outer wall of the grinding sleeve, the opening serves as the entrance for the bearing rollers to enter the grinding processing area and the exit for the bearing rollesr to leave the grinding processing area; during the grinding process, the bearing roller enters or exits the grinding processing area through the opening; during a time of the bearing roller enters or exits the grinding processing area, the grinding process is paused.

Furthermore, during the grinding process, a bearing roller is distributed at each intersection of the annular grooves and the linear grooves; the radial expansion component drives the linear groove array, or the radial contraction component drives the grinding sleeve strip array to apply a grinding load to the bearing rollers distributed in the grinding processing area, with the bearing rollers contact with both the working surfaces of the annular grooves and the working surfaces of the linear grooves; the grinding shaft and the grinding sleeve rotate relative to each other around the axis of the grinding shaft, while the grinding shaft also performs a relative reciprocating linear motion along the axis of the grinding shaft; when the bearing rollers are the cylindrical rollers or the conical rollers, the bearing rollers rotate around their own axis under the friction drive of the working surfaces of the annular grooves, while the bearing rollers move along the annular grooves and the linear grooves under the pushing effect of the working surfaces of the linear grooves and annular grooves; when the bearing rollers are spherical rollers, the spherical rollers rotate around their own axis under the friction drive of the working surfaces of the linear grooves, while the spherical rollers move along the annular grooves and the linear grooves under the pushing effect of the working surfaces of the linear grooves and annular grooves; the rolling surfaces of the bearing rollers undergo a relative sliding with the working surfaces of the annular grooves and linear grooves, thus achieving the grinding of the rolling surface.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are cylindrical rollers, the working surfaces of the linear grooves are curved cylindrical surfaces that match the rolling surfaces of the cylindrical rollers; or initial states of the linear grooves are V-shaped groove surfaces, with the working surfaces of the linear grooves being the two sections of curved cylindrical surfaces formed during grinding due to wear that match the rolling surface of the cylindrical roller; during grinding, the rolling surface of the cylindrical roller makes surface contact with the working surfaces of the linear grooves.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are the conical rollers, the working surfaces of the linear grooves are V-shaped groove surfaces, with the angle between the two side planes of each V-shaped groove denoted as 2θ; symmetry planes of the V-shaped groove contain the axis of the grinding shaft; during the grinding process, the rolling surfaces of the conical rollers make line contact with the two side planes of the working surfaces of the linear grooves, with small ends of the conical rollers close to a bottom of the linear groove; and Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are spherical rollers, the working surfaces of the linear grooves are cylindrical surfaces that match axial cross section profiles of the spherical roller's surfaces; during grinding, the surfaces of the spherical rollers make line contact with the working surfaces of the linear grooves; when the spherical rollers have ball base surfaces, contact lines between the ball base surfaces of the spherical rollers and the working surfaces of the linear grooves pass through the center of the ball base surfaces of the spherical rollers.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are the cylindrical rollers, the working surfaces of the annular grooves are annular groove surfaces whose profiles correspond to axial cross section profiles of the cylindrical rollers; during the grinding process, the surfaces of the cylindrical rollers are line contacted with the working surfaces of the annular grooves.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are the conical rollers, the working surface of the annular groove is an annular groove surface whose profile corresponds to the axial cross section profile of the conical roller; during grinding, the surface of the conical roller makes line contact with the working surface of the annular groove, and the contact line between the spherical base surface of the conical roller and the working surface of the annular groove passes through the center of the spherical base surface of the conical roller.

Furthermore, when the bearing rollers are the spherical roller, the working surfaces of the annular grooves are annular groove surfaces whose axial cross section profiles are arc, with the radius of the arc equal to a maximum circular cross sectional radius of the spherical rollers; during the grinding process, the rolling surfaces of the spherical rollers make crossed line contact with the working surfaces of the annular grooves.

Furthermore, by placing the bearing rollera as references within the linear grooves and maintaining the contact state during the grinding process, the geometric reference points of the bearing rollers within a same linear groove lie on a same line, referred to as a linear groove baseline; when the bearing rollers are the cylindrical rollers, the axes of the cylindrical rollers lies on the linear groove baseline; when the bearing rollers are conical rollers, the axes of the conical rollers intersect the linear groove baseline at an angle denoted as γ, with sinφ=sinγ·sinθ; and all the linear groove baselines lie on the same cylindrical surfaces, referred to as a grinding shaft base cylindrical surface, which is coaxial with the grinding shaft.

Furthermore, by placing the bearing rollers as references within the annular grooves and maintaining the contact state during grinding process, the geometric reference points of the bearing rollers within a same annular groove lie on a same circumference; the circumference is referred to as an annular groove baseline; all the annular groove baselines lie on a same cylindrical surface, referred to as a grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface, with a radius of the grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface denoted as R₀; when the bearing rollers are the spherical rollers, the axes of the spherical rollers are tangent to the annular groove baseline at a center of the maximum circular cross section of the spherical rollers, and the radius of the grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface is R₀=R_c−D/2.

Furthermore, during the grinding process, the grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface coincides with the grinding shaft base cylindrical surface.

During the grinding process, the bearing rollers distributed at each intersection of the annular grooves and the linear grooves work in coordination to bear the grinding load. The bearing rollers, relying on the working surfaces of the annular grooves and linear grooves, create a selective material removal effect. Larger diameter bearing rollers bear a greater grinding load and remove more material, while smaller diameter bearing rollers bear a smaller grinding load and remove less material.

Furthermore, the radial expansion component includes a guiding sleeve, guiding posts, and an expansion core shaft.

Furthermore, a circumference of the guiding sleeve is provided with no less than three sets of radial guiding structures, each set of the radial guiding structures includes one or more radial guiding holes; and a center of the guiding sleeve is equipped with an axial guiding hole that is slidingly matched with the expansion core shaft; and an outer surface of the expansion core shaft is equipped with one or more conical surfaces or one or more pyramidal surfaces; and the conical surface or the pyramidal surface serves as a driving surface for achieving a radial expansion of the expansion core shaft, which is co-axial with the grinding shaft.

Furthermore, outer surfaces of the guiding posts slide and fit with the radial guiding holes; a bottom surface of each guiding post adjacent to one end of the expansion core shaft is a base surface of each guiding post, which is an inclined surface that slides relative to the driving surface; and another end of each guiding post is fixedly connected to the grinding strip or is transitionally connected to the grinding strip via a grinding strip mounting seat.

Furthermore, the guiding posts that are connected to a same grinding strip constitute a group of guiding posts, and the guiding posts correspond one-to-one with the radial guiding holes of the guiding sleeve; each group of guiding posts corresponds to a set of the radial guiding structures, with a number of guiding posts in each group being equal to a number of the conical surfaces or a number of the pyramidal surfaces.

Furthermore, during the grinding process, the expansion core shaft moves axially along the grinding shaft; the driving surface pushes the bottom surface of the guiding post, causing the guiding post to slide radially outward within the radial guiding hole along the grinding shaft; and in turn, pushes the linear groove array set on the grinding strip to expand outward synchronously in a radial direction along the grinding shaft, and transmits a torque between a main machine of the grinding device and the grinding strip through the interaction between the guiding posts and the radial guiding holes.

Furthermore, the radial contraction component includes no less than three wedge structure sets arranged at a center of the grinding sleeve; each wedge structure set includes a static wedge block and a movable wedge block which are mutually assorted, and the wedge structure sets are arranged between the outer sleeve and the grinding sleeve strips; each wedge structure set includes one or more sets of static wedge blocks and movable wedge blocks, with each grinding sleeve strip connected to each wedge structure set; the inclined surface of the movable wedge block slides and fits with the inclined surface of the static wedge block; and when the movable wedge block approaches the static wedge block synchronously along the axial direction of the grinding sleeve relying on the outer sleeve, under an action of the wedge structure, the grinding sleeve strip array contracts synchronously towards the center of the grinding sleeve in the radial direction.

The present disclosure further provides a grinding device for a finishing of rolling surfaces of bearing rollers, wherein including a main machine, an external circulation equipment, and a sleeve-type grinding tool for the fining of the rolling surfaces of the bearing rollers, wherein the sleeve-type grinding tool is arranged horizontally.

Furthermore, the main machine includes a rotary component and a reciprocating linear motion mechanism.

Furthermore, the rotary component is configured to drive the grinding sleeve to rotate relative to the grinding shaft, and the reciprocating linear motion mechanism is configured to drive the grinding sleeve to move back and forth in a linear manner relative to the grinding shaft.

Furthermore, the external circulation equipment includes a receiving device, a feeding device, a storage station, a plurarity of storage bins, and a controller.

Furthermore, the storage station is configured to hold the storage bins; the storage bins are configured to temporarily store the bearing rollers, and each storage bin includes one or more storage channels, where the bearing rollers are stored in a single line queue, with axes parallel to each other and rolling surfaces close to each other; the storage channels extend from tops to bottoms, from channel entrances to channel exits.

Furthermore, the storage bins serve as a hardware foundation for adjusting an order and a position of the bearing rollers in bearing roller queues without physical contact between the bearing rollers loaded in different storage bins, and the bearing roller queues include closed-loop queues of all the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area and the external circulation equipment.

Furthermore, the receiving device is configured to sequentially load the bearing rollers leaving an exit of the grinding processing area into empty storage bins in a queued manner with controlled posture.

Furthermore, the feeding device is configured to unload the bearing rollers from selected storage bins in the storage station according to a decision made by the controller, in a queued manner and with controlled posture, into an entrance as required by the orientation of the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area, and to avoid damage to the bearing rollers caused by mutual collisions.

Furthermore, the bearing rollers in a same storage channel enter the storage channel from the channel entrance in a first-in-first-out manner and leave the storage channel from the channel exit in a last-in-last-out manner.

Furthermore, the controller is configured to decide when to unload the bearing rollers from which storage bin; the controller serves as a software foundation for adjusting the order and position of the bearing rollers in the bearing roller queue without physical contact between the bearing rollers loaded in different storage bins.

Furthermore, during the grinding processing, the bearing rollers that complete a round of grinding processing leave the grinding processing area from the exit and temporarily stay in the empty storage bins located in the storage station; and based on the decision of the controller, the bearing rollers are unloaded from the selected storage bins in the storage station and sent into the grinding processing area from the entrance to continue receiving grinding processing; the order and position of the bearing rollers sent into the grinding processing area are updated according to the decision made by the controller, thus achieving block mixing and switching of the bearing rollers under a condition of no physical contact between the bearing rollers loaded in different storage bins; this cycle continues until the bearing rollers reach the specified technical indicators.

To improve the dimensional consistency of the bearing rollers, it is necessary to establish a feeding sequence rule for loading the bearing rollers into the entrance, and to plan the dynamic timing of unloading the bearing rollers from each storage bin during the grinding process based on this feeding sequence rule. On one hand, the feeding sequence rule can ensure that all the bearing rollers experience a similar number of grinding cycles, while on the other hand, it can weaken the order and positional characteristics of the bearing rollers in the bearing roller queue when compared with each other in the grinding processing area.

Furthermore, the external circulation equipment serves to handle large quantities of bearing rollers exceeding the capacity of the grinding processing area, establish a logistics channel for the bearing rollers between the exit and the entrance of the grinding processing area, and also configured for mixing and switching the bearing rollers.

Furthermore, storage space of the storage bin is divided into a plurality of parallel storage channels, which are arranged at an angle to the horizontal plane; a width of the storage channels matches an axial length of the bearing rollers; upper ends of the storage channel are the channel entrances, and lower ends of the storage channels are the channel exits, equipped with exit gates; the bearing rollers are stored sequentially in a single line queue, with axes parallel to each other and the rolling surfaces close to each other in the storage channels; when the bearing rollers are unloaded from the storage channels, the exit gates are in an open state.

Furthermore, the storage bins are installed in layers within the storage station.

Furthermore, the receiving device includes an unloading robot, a front receiving mechanism, and a front transition mechanism.

Furthermore, the front receiving mechanism and the front transition mechanism are both equipped with the storage channels consistent with those in the storage bins.

Furthermore, the feeding device includes a rear transition mechanism, a rear feeding mechanism, and a loading robot.

Furthermore, the rear transition mechanism and the rear feeding mechanism are both equipped with the storage channels consistent with those in the storage bins.

Furthermore, the loading robot and the unloading robot each have a set of parallel arranged finger-like grippers, and the ends of the finger-like grippers are equipped with suction cups for adsorbing the bearing rollers; the suction cups are vacuum suction cups or electromagnetic suction cups.

Furthermore, each time the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area complete a round of the grinding process, an unloading and loading operation is performed; the grinding shaft is rotated until one of the linear groove s is aligned with the opening, and the finger-like grippers of the unloading robot are inserted into each opening to parallelly adsorb and retrieve one of the bearing rollers located within the linear groove s; the bearing rollers are then placed in the respective storage channels of the front receiving mechanism or on the conveying mechanism; and the bearing rollers on the conveying mechanism enter the respective storage channels of the front receiving mechanism through the conveying mechanism; the finger-like grippers of the loading robot parallelly adsorb and retrieve one of the bearing rollers from the respective storage channels of the rear feeding mechanism, and according to orientation requirements of the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area, the bearing rollers are placed into the linear groove s through the openings, after which the finger-like grippers withdraw from the openings; and the grinding shaft is then rotated to align a next linear groove with the opening, and the above operations are repeated until all the bearing rollers from the previous round of grinding process are unloaded from the grinding processing area and loaded with the subsequent bearing rollers, continuing the grinding process; during each round of grinding process, an average material removal in the diameter direction of the bearing rollers needs to be controlled within 0.5 micrometers.

Furthermore, when the front receiving mechanism is fully loaded with the bearing rollers, the channel entrances of the front transition mechanism align with the channel exits of the front receiving mechanism, allowing all the bearing rollers within the front receiving mechanism to roll and transfer to the storage channels of the front transition mechanism; the channel exits of the fully loaded front transition mechanism align with the channel entrances of the empty storage bins in the storage station, allowing all the bearing rollers within the front transition mechanism to roll and load into the storage channels of the storage bins.

Furthermore, according to the decision of the controller, the channel entrances of the rear transition mechanism align with the channel exits of the selected storage bin in the storage station, allowing all bearing rollers in the storage bins to roll and unload into the storage channels of the rear transition mechanism 81; the channel exits of the fully loaded rear transition mechanism align with the channel entrances of the rear feeding mechanism, allowing all bearing rollers in the rear transition mechanism 81 to roll and transfer to the storage channels of the rear feeding mechanism.

Compared to the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present disclosure are as follows:

• • for the conical rollers, the combination of the circular grooves and linear grooves of the sleeve-type grinding tool in the present disclosure ensures that the contact line of the tool's working surface can completely cover the large end spherical base surface of the conical rollers and the spherical base surface of the spherical rollers. This is conducive to improving the shape accuracy of the spherical base surfaces of both the conical rollers and spherical rollers. For spherical rollers, the structure of the sleeve-type grinding tool in the present disclosure is relatively simple, which facilitates the promotion of the spherical roller grinding technology. For the cylindrical rollers, the conical rollers, or the spherical rollers, the sleeve-type grinding tool and grinding equipment of the present disclosure separate the process of entering and leaving the grinding processing area from the grinding process. This effectively alleviates the workload on external circulating equipment while ensuring grinding precision and efficiency, thereby reducing the implementation difficulty of the bearing roller circulating grinding technology.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a cylindrical roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a conical roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a symmetrical spherical roller without ball base surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a symmetrical spherical roller with ball base surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an asymmetrical spherical roller with ball base surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a needle roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic structural diagram of a radial expansion component of a cone driving surface and a corresponding section view according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a radial expansion component of a pyramid driving surface and a correspond section view according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a sigle part of a grinding shaft according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of the grinding shaft according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a grinding sleeve and a corresponding section view according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of the entrance and exit of a griding processing area according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 13 is a distrution diagram of the griding processing area during a grinding process on the cylindrical roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 14 is a first schematic structural diagram of a linear groove that matches the cylindrical roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a second schematic structural diagram of the linear groove that matches the cylindrical roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 16 is a schematic structural diagram shows a connecting situation between a roller surface of a conical roller and a working surface of the linear groove according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 17 is a schematic structural diagram shows a connecting situation between a roller surface of a conical roller and a working surface of the linear groove according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 18 is a schematic structural diagram shows a connecting situation between a roller surface of a conical roller and a working surface of a coaxial annular groove according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 19 is a schematic structural diagram shows a connecting situation between a roller surface of a spherical roller and a working surface of the coaxial annular according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 20 is a schematic structural diagram of a linear groove baseline and grinding shaft base cylindrical surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 is a schematic structural diagram of an annular groove baseline and grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 21 is a schematic structural diagram of storage channels of a storage bin according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 22 is a schematic structural diagram of a symmetrical spherical roller without ball base surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 23 is a work schematic structural diagram of the storage station, receiving device and feeding device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 24 is a schematic diagram of an unloading robot taking out a conical roller from an exit and placing it on a conveyor belt according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

LABELS AND DESCRIPTION

• • 11 cylindrical roller, 12 conical roller, 13 spherical roller, 14 axis of a bearing roller, 15 rolling surface, 16 reference end surface, 17 end surface, 18 maximum circular cross section; and
  • 2 grinding shaft, 21 base shaft, 22 grinding shaft, 23 grinding strip, 25 linear groove, 251 linear groove baseline, 252 grinding shaft base cylindrical surface, 253 chip pocket, 254 symmetry planes of the V-shaped groove, 255 linear groove contacting line, 26 guiding post, 261 outer surface of the guiding post, 262 base surface of the guiding post, 27 guiding sleeve, 271 radial guiding hole, 272 axial guiding hole, 28 expansion core shaft, 281 conical surface, 282 pyramidal surface; and
  • 3 grinding sleeve, 31 axis of the grinding sleeve, 33 coaxial annular groove, 34 annular groove baseline, 341 grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface, 35 circular groove contacting line, 36 grinding sleeve strip, 37 outer sleeve, 38 static wedge block, 39 movable wedge block; and
  • 41 entrance, 42 exit; and
  • 5 external circulation equipment; and
  • 61 storage bin, 62 exit gate, 63 storage channel; and
  • 74 conveyor, 78 front station receiving mechanism, 79 front station transition mechanism; and
  • 81 rear transition mechanism, 82 rear feeding mechanism; and
  • 93 finger-like gripper, 94 suction cup; and
  • O center of the maximum circular cross section, P geometric center, D nominal diameter of the bearing roller, R₀ radius of the grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface, R_c curvature radius of axial cross section profile of the rolling surface, 2φ cone angle of the conical roller, 2θ angle between two side planes of each V-shaped groove, γ angle between axis of the conical rollers and axis of the grinding sleeve.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The following provides a more detailed description of the present disclosure in conjunction with the accompanying illustrated embodiments. The embodiments described with reference to the accompanying drawings are exemplary and intended to explain the present disclosure, and should not be understood as limitations on the disclosure. Furthermore, the dimensions, materials, shapes, and relative configurations of the components described in the following embodiments are not limited to the scope of the disclosure unless specifically stated otherwise.

The bearing rollers refer to the processed bearing rollers, which are cylindrical rollers 11, conical rollers 12, or spherical rollers 13. The spherical rollers 13 include symmetrical spherical rollers without ball base surfaces, symmetrical spherical rollers with ball base surfaces, and asymmetrical spherical rollers with ball base surfaces. In the present disclosure needle rollers are classified as cylindrical rollers 11.

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a cylindrical roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Cylindrical roller surfaces include rolling surface 15 and end surfaces 17 of each cylindrical roller 11, with a geometric reference point of each cylindrical roller 11 defined as a geometric center P of the each cylindrical roller 11. FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a conical roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Conical roller surfaces include the rolling surface 15 and reference end surface 16 of each conical roller 12, where end of each conical roller 12 with the spherical base surface are defined as reference end of each conical roller 12, and a cone angle of each conical roller 12 is denoted as 2φ; and the geometric reference point P of each conical roller 12 is defined as the geometric center of each conical roller 12.

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a symmetrical spherical roller without ball base surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a symmetrical spherical roller with ball base surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an asymmetrical spherical roller with ball base surface according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. When the spherical rollers 13 are spherical rollers without the ball base surfaces, the spherical roller surfaces include the rolling surface 15 and the end surfaces 17 of each spherical roller. When the spherical rollers 13 are symmetrical spherical rollers with ball base surfaces or the asymmetrical spherical rollers with the ball base surfaces, the spherical roller surfaces include the rolling surface 15 and reference end surfaces 16 of each spherical rollers, with the ends of the spherical rollers 13 including the spherical base surfaces being defined as the reference ends of the spherical rollers 13. The geometric reference point of each spherical roller 13 is defined as a center of a maximum circular cross section 18 of each spherical roller 13, with a maximum circular section diameter, or a nominal diameter, denoted as D. and curvature radius of an axial cross section profile of the rolling surfaces 15 of the spherical rollers 13 is denoted as R_c. FIG. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a needle roller according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As show in FIGS. 1-6, the nominal diameter of the bearing rollers is D.

The conveying mechanism described in the present disclosure is used to transport the bearing rollers in a single line queue, with controlled posture, from one location to another. The conveying mechanism can be an existing technology such as a flat belt conveying mechanism, a double round belt conveying mechanism, or any conveying mechanism developed in the future for the purpose described in the present disclosure. The present disclosure does not impose restrictions on the structure of the conveying mechanism.

The lifting mechanism described in the present disclosure is used to lift the bearing rollers individually and in a single line queue with controlled posture from a lower position to a higher position. The lifting mechanism can be an existing technology such as a push plate lifting mechanism, a chain plate lifting mechanism, or any lifting mechanism developed in the future for the purpose described in the present disclosure. The present disclosure does not impose restrictions on the structure of the lifting mechanism.

An embodiment of a griding tool: a sleeve-type grinding tool for a finishing of rolling surfaces of bearing rollers.

The sleeve-type grinding tool including a grinding sleeve 3 and a grinding shaft 2. During a grinding process, the grinding shaft 2 passes through the grinding sleeve 3, and the grinding shaft 2 is coaxial with the grinding sleeve 3.

An outer circumference of the grinding shaft 2 is provided with a set of at least three linear grooves 25 aligned with the inner peripheral surface of the grinding sleeve 3, where the linear grooves 25 are distributed in a circumferential array, and the axis of a linear groove array is the axis of the grinding shaft 22. During a grinding process, the surface of the linear groove 25 that contacts the bearing roller during grinding is the working surfaces of the linear groove.

When the bearing rollers are cylindrical rollers 11 or conical rollers 12, the grinding shaft 2 is an assembly that includes a set of at least three grinding strips 23 and a radial expansion component located at a center of the grinding shaft 2, with the linear grooves 25 located on the grinding strips 23. The grinding strips 23 are solidly connected to the radial expansion component or transition-connected to the radial expansion component via a grinding strip mounting base 24. The radial expansion component is configured to drive the linear groove array located on the grinding strips 23 to synchronously expand radially outward along the grinding shaft 2 and to transmit torque between a main machine of a grinding device and the grinding strips 23.

The radial expansion component includes a guiding sleeve 27, guiding posts 26, and an expansion core shaft 28, as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

A circumference of the guiding sleeve 27 is provided with no less than three sets of radial guiding structures, each set of the radial guiding structures includes one or more radial guiding holes 271; and a center of the guiding sleeve 27 is equipped with an axial guiding hole 272 that is slidingly matched with the expansion core shaft 28. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the circumference of the guiding sleeve 27 is provided with six sets of radial guiding structures, each set of the radial guiding structures includes three radial guiding holes 271.

An outer surface of the expansion core shaft 28 is equipped with one or more conical surfaces 281 or one or more pyramidal surfaces 282. The conical surface 281 or the pyramidal surface 282 serves as a driving surface for achieving a radial expansion of the expansion core shaft 28, which is co-axial with the grinding shaft 2. As shown in FIG. 7, the outer surface of the expansion core shaft 28 is equipped with three conical surfaces 281 or one. As shown in FIG. 8, the outer surface of the expansion core shaft 28 is equipped with three pyramidal surfaces 282.

Outer surfaces 261 of the guiding posts slide and fit with the radial guiding holes 271. A bottom surface of each guiding post 26 adjacent to one end of the expansion core shaft 28 is a base surface of each guiding post 262, which is an inclined surface that slides relative to the driving surface; and another end of each guiding post 26 is fixedly connected to the grinding strip 23 or is transitionally connected to the grinding strip 23 via a grinding strip mounting seat 24.

The guiding posts 26 that are connected to a same grinding strip 23 constitute a group of guiding posts 26, and the guiding posts 26 correspond one-to-one with the radial guiding holes 271 of the guiding sleeve 27. Each group of guiding posts 26 corresponds to a set of the radial guiding structures, with a number of guiding posts 26 in each group being equal to a number of the conical surfaces 281 or a number of the pyramidal surfaces 282.

During the grinding process, the expansion core shaft 28 moves axially along the grinding shaft 2. The driving surface pushes the bottom surface of the guiding post 262, causing the guiding post 26 to slide radially outward within the radial guiding hole 271 along the grinding shaft 2. In turn, pushes the linear groove array set on the grinding strip 23 to expand outward synchronously in a radial direction along the grinding shaft 2, and transmits a torque between a main machine of the grinding device and the grinding strip 23 through the interaction between the guiding posts 26 and the radial guiding holes 271.

When the bearing rollers are spherical rollers 13, the grinding shaft 2 is a single shaft-like part. As shown in FIG. 9, the linear grooves 25 located on the outer peripheral surface of the shaft-like part. Alternatively, the grinding shaft 2 is a composite component formed by connecting multiple parts. As shown in FIG. 10, the grinding shaft 2 includes a base shaft 21 and grinding strips 23 with linear grooves 25, and the grinding strips 23 are solidly connected to the outer peripheral surface of the base shaft 21.

The radial contraction component includes no less than three wedge structure sets arranged at a center of the grinding sleeve 3. As shown in FIG. 11, each wedge structure set includes a static wedge block 38 and a movable wedge block 39 which are mutually assorted, and the wedge structure sets are arranged between the outer sleeve 37 and the grinding sleeve strips 36. Each wedge structure set includes one or more sets of static wedge blocks 38 and movable wedge blocks 39, with each grinding sleeve strip 36 connected to each wedge structure set; the inclined surface of the movable wedge block 39 slides and fits with the inclined surface of the static wedge block 38. When the movable wedge block 39 approaches the static wedge block 38 synchronously along the axial direction of the grinding sleeve 3 relying on the outer sleeve 37, under an action of the wedge structure, the grinding sleeve strip array contracts synchronously towards the center of the grinding sleeve 3 in the radial direction.

A grinding processing area is formed by a surrounding of the working surfaces of the annular grooves and the linear grooves. As shown in FIG. 12, for each annular groove 33, an opening for the bearing rollers to enter or exit the grinding processing area is defined, the opening leads to an upper half of an outer wall of the grinding sleeve 3. And the opening serves as the entrance for the bearing rollers to enter the grinding processing area and the exit for the bearing rollesr to leave the grinding processing area. During the grinding process, the bearing roller enters or exits the grinding processing area through the opening. During a time of the bearing roller enters or exits the grinding processing area, the grinding process is paused.

As shown in FIG. 13, during the grinding process, a bearing roller is distributed at each intersection of the annular grooves 33 and the linear grooves 25. The radial expansion component drives the linear groove array, or the radial contraction component drives the grinding sleeve strip array to apply a grinding load to the bearing rollers distributed in the grinding processing area, with the bearing rollers contact with both the working surfaces of the annular grooves and the working surfaces of the linear grooves. The grinding shaft 2 and the grinding sleeve 3 rotate relative to each other around the axis of the grinding shaft 22, while the grinding shaft 2 also performs a relative reciprocating linear motion along the axis of the grinding shaft 22. When the bearing rollers are the cylindrical rollers 11 or the conical rollers 12, the bearing rollers rotate around their own axis under the friction drive of the working surfaces of the annular grooves, while the bearing rollers move along the annular grooves 33 and the linear grooves 25 under the pushing effect of the working surfaces of the linear grooves and annular grooves; when the bearing rollers are spherical rollers 13, the spherical rollers rotate around their own axis under the friction drive of the working surfaces of the linear grooves, while the spherical rollers move along the annular grooves 33 and the linear grooves 25 under the pushing effect of the working surfaces of the linear grooves and annular grooves. The rolling surfaces 15 of the bearing rollers undergo a relative sliding with the working surfaces of the annular grooves and linear grooves, thus achieving the grinding of the rolling surface 15.

When the bearing rollers are cylindrical rollers 11, the working surfaces of the linear grooves are curved cylindrical surfaces that match the rolling surfaces 15 of the cylindrical rollers. Perfectly, the bottom of the linear groove 25 is equipped with a chip storage groove 253 as shown in FIG. 14. Or, initial states of the linear grooves 25 are V-shaped groove surfaces, with the working surfaces of the linear grooves being the two sections of curved cylindrical surfaces formed during grinding due to wear that match the rolling surface 15 of the cylindrical roller, as shown in FIG. 15; during the grinding process, the rolling surface 15 of the cylindrical roller makes surface contact with the working surfaces of the linear grooves, as shown in FIG. 14.

When the bearing rollers are the conical rollers 12, as shown in FIG. 16, the working surfaces of the linear grooves are V-shaped groove surfaces, with the angle between the two side planes of each V-shaped groove denoted as 2θ. Symmetry planes of the V-shaped groove 254 contain the axis of the grinding shaft 22; during the grinding process, the rolling surfaces 15 of the conical rollers 12 make line contact with the two side planes of the working surfaces of the linear grooves, with small ends of the conical rollers 12 close to a bottom of the linear groove 25.

When the bearing rollers are spherical rollers 13, the working surfaces of the linear grooves are cylindrical surfaces that match axial cross section profiles of the spherical roller's surfaces; during grinding, the surfaces of the spherical rollers make line contact with the working surfaces of the linear grooves; when the spherical rollers 13 have ball base surfaces, contact lines between the ball base surfaces of the spherical rollers 13 and the working surfaces of the linear grooves pass through the center of the ball base surfaces of the spherical rollers 13. The bearing roller shown in FIG. 17 is asymmetrical spherical rollers with ball base surfaces, the drawing label of 255 refers to contacting line between the surface of the spherical roller and the working surface of the linear groove, wherein the contacting line of the spherical base surface portion passes through the center of the spherical base surface of the spherical roller 13.

When the bearing rollers are the cylindrical rollers 11, the working surfaces of the annular grooves are annular groove surfaces whose profiles correspond to axial cross section profiles of the cylindrical rollers; during the grinding process, the surfaces of the cylindrical rollers are line contacted with the working surfaces of the annular grooves.

When the bearing rollers are the conical rollers 12, the working surface of the annular groove is an annular groove surface whose profile corresponds to the axial cross section profile of the conical roller; during grinding, the surface of the conical roller makes line contact with the working surface of the annular groove, and the contact line between the spherical base surface of the conical roller 12 and the working surface of the annular groove passes through the center of the spherical base surface of the conical roller 12. As shown in FIG. 18, thenumber label of 35 refers to the contacting line between the surface of the conical roller and the working surface of the circular groove, where the contacting line of the spherical base surface part passes through the center of the spherical base surface of the conical roller 12.

When the bearing rollers are the spherical roller 13, the working surfaces of the annular grooves are annular groove surfaces whose axial cross section profiles are arc, with the radius of the arc equal to a maximum circular cross sectional radius of the spherical rollers 13. During the grinding process, as shown in FIG. 19, the rolling surfaces 15 of the spherical rollers make crossed line contact with the working surfaces of the annular grooves.

By placing the bearing rollera as references within the linear grooves 25 and maintaining the contact state during the grinding process, the geometric reference points of the bearing rollers within a same linear groove 25 lie on a same line, referred to as a linear groove baseline 251; when the bearing rollers are the cylindrical rollers 11, the axes 14 of the cylindrical rollers 11 lies on the linear groove baseline 251, as shown in FIG. 2. When the bearing rollers are conical rollers 12, the axes 14 of the conical rollers 12 intersect the linear groove baseline 251 at an angle denoted as γ, with sinφ=sinγ·sinθ, as shown in FIG. 16. All the linear groove baselines 251 lie on the same cylindrical surfaces, referred to as a grinding shaft base cylindrical surface 252, which is coaxial with the grinding shaft 2.

By placing the bearing rollers as references within the annular grooves 33 and maintaining the contact state during grinding process, as shown in FIG. 21, the geometric reference points of the bearing rollers within a same annular groove 33 lie on a same circumference; the circumference is referred to as an annular groove baseline 34; all the annular groove baselines 34 lie on a same cylindrical surface, referred to as a grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface 341, with a radius of the grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface 341 denoted as R₀. As shown in FIG. 19, when the bearing rollers are the spherical rollers 13, the axes 14 of the spherical rollers 13 are tangent to the annular groove baseline 34 at a center of the maximum circular cross section 18 of the spherical rollers 13, and the radius of the grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface 341 is R0=R_c−D/2.

During the grinding process, the grinding sleeve base cylindrical surface 341 coincides with the grinding shaft base cylindrical surface 252.

During the grinding process, the bearing rollers located at the intersections of the annular groove 33 and the linear groove 25 work in coordination to bear the grinding load. The bearing rollers, relying on the working surfaces of the annular groove and the linear groove, experience a selective material removal effect. The larger diameter bearing rollers bear a greater grinding load and have more material removed, while the smaller diameter bearing rollers bear a smaller grinding load and have less material removed.

An embodiment of the griding device: a grinding device for a finishing of rolling surfaces of bearing rollers.

The grinding device for a finishing of rolling surfaces of bearing rollers includes a main machine, an external circulation equipment 5, and a sleeve-type grinding tool for the fining of the rolling surfaces of the bearing rollers, wherein the sleeve-type grinding tool is arranged horizontally.

The main machine includes a rotary component and a reciprocating linear motion mechanism.

The rotary component is configured to drive the grinding sleeve 3 to rotate relative to the grinding shaft 2, and the reciprocating linear motion mechanism is configured to drive the grinding sleeve 3 to move back and forth in a linear manner relative to the grinding shaft 2.

The external circulation equipment 5 includes a receiving device, a feeding device, a storage station, a plurarity of storage bins 61, and a controller.

The storage station is configured to hold the storage bins 61; the storage bins 61 are configured to temporarily store the bearing rollers, and each storage bin 61 includes one or more storage channels 63. The bearing rollers are arranged in a single line queue, with their axes parallel to each other and their rolling surfaces 15 closely adjacent to one another, within the storage channels 63 of the storage bins 61 to reduce mutual collisions between the bearing rollers and avoid collision damage. The storage channels 63 gradually transitions from the entrance to the exit from top to bottom, facilitating the passive rolling of the bearing rollers under their own gravitational force within the storage channel 63.

The storage bins 61 serve as a hardware foundation for adjusting an order and a position of the bearing rollers in bearing roller queues without physical contact between the bearing rollers loaded in different storage bins 61. The bearing roller queues include closed-loop queues of all the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area and the external circulation equipment 5.

As shown in FIG. 22, storage space of the storage bin 61 is divided into a plurality of parallel storage channels 63, which are arranged at an angle to the horizontal plane; a width of the storage channels 63 matches an axial length of the bearing rollers; upper ends of the storage channel 63 are the channel entrances, and lower ends of the storage channels 63 are the channel exits, equipped with exit gates 62. The bearing rollers are stored sequentially in a single line queue, with axes parallel to each other and the rolling surfaces 15 close to each other in the storage channels 63; when the bearing rollers are unloaded from the storage channels 63, the exit gates 62 are in an open state.

As shown in FIG. 22, The storage bins 61 are installed in layers within the storage station.

The receiving device is used to sequentially load the bearing rollers, departing from the exit 42, into the empty storage bin 61 in a controlled posture and orderly manner, to avoid collision damage caused by the mutual impact of the bearing rollers.

The receiving device includes an unloading robot, a front receiving mechanism 78, and a front transition mechanism 79.

The front receiving mechanism 78 and the front transition mechanism 79 are both equipped with the storage channels 63 consistent with those in the storage bins 61.

The feeding device includes a rear transition mechanism 81, a rear feeding mechanism 82, and a loading robot.

The rear transition mechanism 81 and the rear feeding mechanism 82 are both equipped with the storage channels 63 consistent with those in the storage bins 61.

The loading robot and the unloading robot each have a set of parallel arranged finger-like grippers 93, and the ends of the finger-like grippers 93 are equipped with suction cups 94 for adsorbing the bearing rollers. As shown in FIG. 24, the suction cups 94 are vacuum suction cups or electromagnetic suction cups.

Each time the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area complete a round of the grinding process, an unloading and loading operation is performed; the grinding shaft 2 is rotated until one of the linear grooves 25 is aligned with the opening, and the finger-like grippers 93 of the unloading robot are inserted into each opening to parallelly adsorb and retrieve one of the bearing rollers located within the linear grooves 25. As shown in FIG. 24, the unloading robot is placing the conical roller 12, which has been retrieved from the exit 42, onto the conveyor belt 74. The bearing rollers are then placed in the respective storage channels 63 of the front receiving mechanism 78 or on the conveying mechanism. The bearing rollers on the conveying mechanism enter the respective storage channels 63 of the front receiving mechanism 78 through the conveying mechanism. The finger-like grippers 93 of the loading robot parallelly adsorb and retrieve one of the bearing rollers from the respective storage channels 63 of the rear feeding mechanism 82, and according to orientation requirements of the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area, the bearing rollers are placed into the linear grooves 25 through the openings, after which the finger-like grippers 93 withdraw from the openings. The grinding shaft 2 is then rotated to align a next linear groove 25 with the opening, and the above operations are repeated until all the bearing rollers from the previous round of grinding process are unloaded from the grinding processing area and loaded with the subsequent bearing rollers, continuing the grinding process. During each round of grinding process, an average material removal in the diameter direction of the bearing rollers needs to be controlled within 0.5 micrometers.

The front receiving mechanism 78 receives the bearing rollers taken out by the unloading robot from the exit 42 (as shown in FIG. 23, the third storage channel 63 of the front receiving mechanism 78 is receiving cone rollers 12 from the conveying mechanism, which is not shown in the figure). When the front receiving mechanism 78 is fully loaded with the bearing rollers, the channel entrances of the front transition mechanism 79 align with the channel exits of the front receiving mechanism 78, allowing all the bearing rollers within the front receiving mechanism 78 to roll and transfer to the storage channels 63 of the front transition mechanism 79. The channel exits of the fully loaded front transition mechanism 79 align with the channel entrances of the empty storage bins 61 in the storage station, allowing all the bearing rollers within the front transition mechanism 79 to roll and load into the storage channels 63 of the storage bins 61.

According to the decision of the controller, the channel entrances of the rear transition mechanism 81 align with the channel exits of the selected storage bin 61 in the storage station, allowing all bearing rollers in the storage bins 61 to roll and unload into the storage channels 63 of the rear transition mechanism 81. The channel exits of the fully loaded rear transition mechanism 81 align with the channel entrances of the rear feeding mechanism 82, allowing all bearing rollers in the rear transition mechanism 81 to roll and transfer to the storage channels 63 of the rear feeding mechanism 82. In FIG. 23, the loading robot has retrieved two conical rollers 12 from the storage channels 63 of the rear feeding mechanism 82.

The bearing rollers in a same storage channel 63 enter the storage channel 63 from the channel entrance in a first-in-first-out manner and leave the storage channel 63 from the channel exit in a last-in-last-out manner.

The controller is configured to decide when to unload the bearing rollers from which storage bin 61. The controller serves as a software foundation for adjusting the order and position of the bearing rollers in the bearing roller queue without physical contact between the bearing rollers loaded in different storage bins 61.

During the grinding process, the bearing rollers that complete one round of grinding in the grinding processing area leave the grinding processing area from the exit 42. The bearing rollers that exit the grinding processing area are temporarily stored in the empty storage bin 61 and placed in the storage station. Based on the controller's decision, the bearing rollers are unloaded from the selected storage chamber 61 within the storage station and sent into the grinding processing area through the entrance 41 to receive the next round of grinding. The sequence and position of the bearing rollers being sent into the grinding processing area are updated according to the controller's decision, allowing for block mixing and rearrangement of the bearing rollers without physical contact between the bearing rollers loaded in different storage chambers 61.

The process in which all the bearing rollers complete one round of entering the grinding processing area from the entrance 41, undergoing grinding in the grinding processing area, and leaving the grinding processing area from the exit 42 is referred to as one grinding cycle.

The sequence and positional changes of the bearing rollers in the queue that occur in the external circulation equipment 5 after leaving the grinding processing area at the exit 42 alter the combination of the bearing rollers when they subsequently enter the grinding processing area. This effectively extends the selective material removal effect that occurs between the bearing rollers in the grinding processing area to the entire batch of bearing rollers. As the grinding cycles increase, the dimensional consistency of the bearing rollers improves continuously until the specified technical standards are met.

To enhance the dimensional consistency of the bearing rollers, it is necessary to establish a feeding sequence rule for loading the bearing rollers into the entrance 41, and to plan the unloading timing of the bearing rollers from each storage chamber 61 according to this feeding sequence rule. On one hand, the feeding sequence rule can ensure that the number of grinding cycles experienced by all the bearing rollers approaches uniformity, while on the other hand, it can mitigate the sequence and positional characteristics of the bearing rollers that are compared with each other in the grinding processing area.

The external circulation equipment 5 is used to handle the grinding of large quantities of bearing rollers that exceed the capacity of the grinding processing area. Additionally, it establishes the logistics channel for the bearing rollers between the exit 42 and the entrance 41, and further serves to mix and rearrange the bearing rollers to weaken their sequence and positional characteristics in the bearing roller queue.

During the logistics process of the bearing rollers through the external circulation equipment 5 from the exit 42 to the entrance 41, breaking the fixed first-in-first-out feeding order according to certain rules helps to overcome the disadvantage that bearing rollers spaced far apart in the bearing roller queue cannot be compared with each other in the grinding processing area due to the rigid feeding sequence.

In the logistics process of the external circulation equipment 5, the bearing rollers are orderly temporarily stored in the storage bins 61 and are then unloaded from the selected storage bins 61 in a planned sequence to be loaded into the entrance 41, effectively avoiding surface damage caused by collisions between the bearing rollers.