The production process of stainless steel balls for linear guideway

In the manufacturing process of unidirectional bearings, after the inner and outer rings are combined with steel balls, the steel balls need to be evenly distributed into the grooves of the inner and outer rings of the unidirectional bearing to facilitate the assembly of the cage. Currently, most ball distributing devices use ball distributing pins to evenly distribute the steel balls, using cylinders for automatic and even distribution of steel balls. This method can easily damage the steel balls. The cylinder generates vibrations that disrupt the even distribution of steel balls, break or bend and deform the ball distributing pins. Many small and medium-sized unidirectional bearing manufacturers use manual methods to distribute steel balls. The equipment for holding the cage has very low power. In addition, the equipment for holding the cage generally uses the method of rubber hammering. This method is simple and leads to uneven stress on the pocket holes and grooves of the cage, reducing the clearance. When force is applied, it is difficult to control the force, and it can easily cause damage to the steel balls, cage pocket holes, and grooves, as well as equipment damage. The labor intensity is high, and it is very inconvenient.

A ball distributing device for cage equipment is proposed, which involves a ball distributor for cage equipment. It includes a handle, a base, and multiple ball distributing rods fixed on the end faces of the base and arranged in a circular array. The longer ball distributing rod among multiple ball distributing rods is located in the middle, and the lengths of the other ball distributing rods decrease to both sides from the ranked ball distributing rod, while the other ball distributing rods are symmetrically arranged relative to the ranked ball distributing rod. However, the tips of these ball distributing rods are all pointed, and multiple experiments have shown that using these ball distributing rods for ball distribution can easily result in two steel balls getting stuck between two distributing rods, leading to ball distribution failure and reduced production capacity. Moreover, this device can only distribute steel balls and cannot assemble the cage, making its functionality relatively limited.