The shape accuracy and integrity of the working surfaces of high-performance rolling bearings (such as bearing rings' raceways) directly determine the performance, quality, and reliability of equipment. For bearing rings' working surfaces, the conventional full-aperture chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) method can achieve high polishing efficiency and good surface quality. However, the polishing pressure relies on interference compression of the polishing pad, which requires custom-designed polishing heads for workpieces of different shapes and sizes and thus limits the versatility of the polishing heads. To address this issue, the work aims to propose a sub-aperture CMP method that can achieve the polishing of bearing rings' raceways through the design of a small polishing head and trajectory planning. Firstly, the theoretical analysis of sub-aperture CMP was carried out, and the relative speed and polishing pressure were analyzed. The polishing principle was summarized as: the polishing pad of the polishing head closely fitted the bearing ring's raceway, forming a line contact. During polishing, the polishing head moved radially, compressing the polishing pad to generate polishing pressure. Both the polishing pad and the inner ring were immersed in the CMP slurry and rotated in opposite directions, and the relative speed was provided by the speed of the polishing pad (i.e., the speed of the polishing head) and the speed of the inner ring. Meanwhile, the polishing head performed an axial reciprocating motion. The chemical reagents in the CMP slurry (e.g., oxidizers and complexing agents) provided chemical action, reacting with the surface of the bearing ring's raceway to form a surface film with low mechanical strength that was readily to remove. Abrasives in the CMP slurry were embedded on the polishing pad, and under the synergistic effect of polishing pressure and relative motion, they removed the surface film. When the chemical reactions and mechanical forces were well coordinated, high-quality and efficient polishing of the ring's raceway were achieved. The finite element analysis results of the polishing pressure distribution showed that sub-aperture CMP could achieve a relatively uniform polishing pressure distribution within about 90% of the central area when polishing the ring's raceway, enabling relatively uniform polishing. Then, based on the Preston formula, the material removal rate (MRR) model and the shape evolution model of sub-aperture CMP were established. The MRR model showed that the MRR of sub-aperture CMP had a linear relationship with the radial displacement of the polishing pad, the speed of the polishing pad, and the speed of the ring. The shape evolution model showed that larger convex points on the ring's raceway produced a larger radial displacement of the polishing pad and a higher MRR, thereby improving shape accuracy. Then, with the inner ring's raceway of a cylindrical roller bearing as the research object, the polishing experiment was carried out. The fitting results of the MRR showed that it increased linearly with the increase of the radial displacement of the polishing pad and the speed of the polishing pad, which preliminarily verified the MRR model. After polishing for 2 hours under the condition that the radial displacement of the polishing pad was 0.1 mm and the speed of the polishing pad was 160 r/min, the average surface roughness Sa of the ring's raceway decreased from 141.97 nm to 7.42 nm, with a decrease of 94.8%. The surface of the ring's raceway became smooth. The roundness error RONt decreased from 2.03 μm to 1.88 μm, with a decrease of 7.4%, and the cylindricity error CYLt was reduced from 5.83 μm to 5.18 μm, with a decrease of 11.1%. The surface quality and shape accuracy were effectively improved. In addition, the proposed sub-aperture CMP method was also applied to the outer ring's raceway of a cylindrical roller bearing. In conclusion, the sub-aperture CMP method proposed in this work enables high-precision polishing of bearing rings' raceways. Compared with the existing full-aperture CMP, the sub-aperture CMP provides better versatility for polishing heads, offering a more generalizable approach for high-precision machining of typical revolution surfaces such as bearing rings' raceways.
Key words
chemical mechanical polishing /
sub-aperture /
ultra-precision /
bearing /
ring's raceway
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Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China (52235004, U2541265); Open Project Funding of State Key Laboratory of High Performance Tools (GXNGJSKL-2026-03); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2682025CG001, 2682024CG007)
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