Precision Engineering 30 (2006) 373380

The development of pivot bearing with multiple degrees of freedom 1st report: Prototype of pivot bearing with two degrees of freedom
Shoji Noguchi a,1 , Hirotoshi Aramaki b,2 , Tohru Kanada c,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, 2641 Yamasaki, Noda-city, Chiba 278-8510, Japan b NSK Ltd., 1-5-50 Kugenuma Shinmei, Fujisawa-city, Kanagawa 251-0021, Japan c Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kanto Gakuin University, 1-50-1 Mutsuura-higashi, Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama-city, Kanagawa 236-8501, Japan Received 19 April 2005; received in revised form 19 October 2005; accepted 15 November 2005 Available online 23 February 2006
a

Abstract This paper deals with the prototype of a new pivot bearing having two degrees of freedom. The idea of the pivot bearing is based on a continuous velocity joint (CVJ). The experimental axial stiffness and contact pressure are compared with those determined by theoretical analysis. Then, it is conrmed that the pivot bearing swings smoothly with a range of 25 . Furthermore, the stiffness of the bearing increases as the swinging angle becomes larger. Therefore, this newly developed pivot bearing may be applied to a parallel mechanism, a joint of robot and so on. 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Pivot bearing; CVJ; Parallel mechanism; Stiffness; Two degrees of freedom; Prototype

1. Introduction The possibility of parallel mechanism as shown in Fig. 1 [1] for a new driving mechanism is increasing in the area of machine tools. The parallel mechanism controls the attitude or movement of a tool and a stage by expanding or contracting several links. High speed, high stiffness and high-precision positioning can be achieved by the parallel mechanism alongside of the conventional mechanism, which is constructed by a combination of several linear motions [2,3]. In order to realize such a performance, the most important thing is to develop the supporting element (bearing). High stiffness, high accuracy, wide swinging angle and low torque are expected for such a supporting element. To realize multiple degrees of freedom for the swinging movement, a ball joint as shown in Fig. 2 [4] or a spherical sliding bearing has been applied. Furthermore, the combination of rolling bearings, such as a universal joint, as shown in Fig. 3 [5] has also been applied in the case in which a sufcient setting space can be secured. However, due to the clearance gap in the ball
Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 45 786 7111; fax: +81 45 786 7111. E-mail addresses: nog@rs.noda.tus.ac.jp (S. Noguchi), kanada@kanto-gakuin.ac.jp (T. Kanada). 1 Tel.: +81 4 7122 9596; fax: +81 4 7123 9814. 2 Tel: +81 466 21 3226; fax: +81 466 27 9766. 0141-6359/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.precisioneng.2005.11.007

joint or spherical bearing, stiffness and swinging accuracy are unsatisfactory. Moreover, in the combined mechanism of rolling bearings, stiffness markedly decreases as the size of the rolling bearing decreases. In order to solve these problems, a multi-degree-of-freedom bearing has been developed [6,7]. In such a bearing as shown in Fig. 4, a swinging element (referred to as a sun ball) is circumscribed by several rolling elements (referred to as planetary balls) and its stiffness is upgraded by adding a preload. However, the movement of the sun ball may be locked by the position of the ball cage, therefore its structural problem is unsolvable. The scope of this research is to develop a practical pivot bearing with multiple degrees of freedom. The basic idea of the pivot bearing is derived from a constant velocity joint (CVJ) for vehicles. Then, two prototypes of pivot bearing with two degrees of freedom, which has rolling and slipping contact, were produced. This paper deals with their summary, design method and evaluation of performance. 2. Design of pivot bearing with two degrees of freedom 2.1. Design of mechanism Fig. 4 shows a small spherical rolling bearing (joint) with multiple degrees of freedom, which is available in the marketplace. It is used in some test equipment [8]. The required torque

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Fig. 1. Example of hexapod parallel link (obtained from: http://www.physikinstrumente.de/products/prdetail.php?secid=7-16).

ball, the bearing motion may be locked due to such structural differences. Moreover, in such a case, the thicknesses of the top and bottom housings are different, the number of planetary balls, which are in contact with the housing, varies. Furthermore, the tensile stiffness becomes lower than the compressive one. Therefore, the following requirements were set for the prototype: (1) The mechanism can restrain the motion of the ball cage (including the rolling element);
Fig. 2. Example of ball joint.

is small and smooth motion can be realized. However, the spherical rolling bearing has a defect arising from the nonrestrictive planetary balls in the ball cage. That is, in the case that the initial position of the ball cage is misaligned by the motion of the sun

Fig. 3. Example of universal joint.

Fig. 4. Example of spherical rolling joint.

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Fig. 5. Schematic view of constant velocity joint (CVJ).

(2) The tensile stiffness and the compressive one are almost the same. In consideration of the above conditions, a prototype of the pivot bearing was designed. Fig. 5 shows a simplied mechanism of the constant velocity joint (CVJ), which is an example of the prototype to be designed. When the two parts, which have some circular-arced grooves, are brought together upon contact with balls, the rotating motion can be carried in constant velocity between the two noncoaxial axes. Originally, it is used for transmission of uniform motion. If one part is xed, the other part can swing in two degrees of freedom. The balls are rolling with differential slip motion in time of swinging. By applying this mechanism, the swinging motion with two degrees of freedom can be realized with restriction on the rolling direction of balls. Constant velocity joints for vehicles have been massproduced and the cost per piece is low. If the pivot bearing structure is similar to the CVJ for vehicles, the manufacturing costs incurred can be reduced. However, if the CVJ is not modied, it cannot be a bearing. Then, the following views were checked in the design procedure: (1) If the balls are monostichous, the xing of the position of rolling element and loading of the axial force cannot be guaranteed. Therefore, the balls were drawn up in two lines and the rolling element was interleaved between the twolined balls. (2) If the balls were drawn up in two lines and both parts had concave grooves, the swinging motion was not realized. Then, concave groove was worked on one part, and the surface of the other part was to be spherical as shown in Fig. 6. (3) Considering (1) and (2), if the housing is integrated with such a mechanism, it is hard to assemble. Thus, the housing should be separated into two bodies. Herewith, a preload became possible within the bearing structure. (4) To hinder free movement of the balls, a ball cage, the same as that used in a rolling bearing was xed between the sun ball and the housing. Specications of the bearing will be described later and Fig. 6 shows the structures of the pivot bearing with two degrees of

Fig. 6. Prototype of pivot bearing with two degrees of freedom. (a) When sun ball (swinging element) has grooves; (b) when housings have grooves.

freedom. One structure has eight grooves in the rolling element and the other has eight grooves in the housing. 2.2. Stiffness design Although dynamic stiffness should be investigated in the application to the parallel mechanism, the calculations of axial displacement and contact surface pressure should be performed as static stiffness is important in practical use. Under the assumption that the material is bearing steel, the attributes of bearing steel are used, such as the modulus of longitudinal elasticity (Youngs modulus) and Poissons ratio. The same design method as the rolling bearing can be applied directly to the structure [9]. So, the calculation of contact surface pressure and stiffness is simple. The cross-sections of the swinging element, rolling element and housing are presented in Fig. 7. When contact surface pressure was calculated by the Hertzian elastic contacting theory, it was necessary that the axial force of the rolling element Q be Fa /(Z sin ). Here, denoted the contact angle, Z denotes the number of rolling elements and Fa denotes the axial force. The

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Fig. 7. Schematic view of structure inside.

axial displacement , can be approximated by the following equation: = sin (1)

Fig. 8. Axial stiffness of prototype pivot bearing. (a) Inuence of number of grooves; (b) inuence of diameter ratio.

Here, is the total displacement along the contact angle. Figs. 8 and 9 show the calculation results for axial displacement, the maximum contact pressure with changing number of grooves and the diameter ratio between the swinging element and the rolling element provided that the inner diameter of the housing is xed to 34.925 mm. In Fig. 8(a), d1 denotes the diameter of the sun ball (swinging element) and d2 denotes the diameter of the rolling element. If the housing has grooves, it can be said that the stiffness becomes larger with increasing number of grooves and approximating the swinging element radius to that of the rolling element. However, since the contact between the swinging element and the rolling element became convexto-convex, the contact pressure became higher overall. In the smallest swinging element bearing with eight grooves, the stiffness was approximately 120 N/m by measuring the gradient of the tangential line in the consecutive curve of 200 N in the axial load. From the viewpoint of grooves, having grooves in the swinging element was advantageous to the stiffness and contact pressure. In particular, the contact condition between the surfaces became concave-to-convex. Therefore, the contacting pressure was moderated to a large extent. In the smallest rolling element bearing with eight grooves, a stiffness of 200 N/m could be obtained. Although the diameter of the swinging element became smaller, the number and area of grooves were reduced considering the necessity of a at area for attaching a shaft.

The axial stiffness of the prototype pivot bearing was assumed to be 100 N/m. Furthermore, considering the accuracy, the availability of sphere balls and the workability of the bearing, the specications of the prototype pivot bearing were determined as shown in Table 1. Although a large swinging angle was desirable, it was set to 25 to +25 for the primary purpose of this research, namely conrmation of the swinging structure. The contacting angle of

Table 1 Specications of prototype pivot bearing with two-degree-of-freedom Dimension Angle of swing ( ) Diameter of sun ball Diameter of swinging shaft (mm) Diameter of rolling element (ball) Diameter of concave curvature (mm) Disposition of balls Arrangement of balls in orthogonal direction to disposition of balls Diameter of groove 60 mm, height 30 mm 25 to +25 25.4 mm (1 ) 10 4.7625 mm (3/16 ) 34.925 8 balls every 45 2 (contacting angle from 30 to +30 ) 5 mm (depth 1 mm), by the design basis for a deep-groove ball bearing

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Fig. 10. Ball cage for the bearing having grooves in sun ball.

Table 2 Design parameters for bearing Static performance (1) Position of grooves (2) Dimension of curvature (3) Numbers of balls and grooves (4) Contact angles of ball (5) Materials Dynamic performance (6) Depth of groove (7) Ball cage

Fig. 9. Maximum contacting surface pressure of prototype pivot bearing. (a) Inuence of number of grooves; (b) inuence of diameter ratio.

the rolling element was set to 30 considering the assembly and nonscrambling of the clear aperture of the upper housing. The dimensions (width and depth) of the groove were determined on the design basis of the deep-groove ball bearings. 2.3. Design of ball cage The ball cage was made of engineering plastics. It has laddered pocket holes along a thin-walled taper with a diameter of 5.5 mm, which is larger than that of the installed ball. The prototype bearing is the same as a rolling bearing with a rotating inner ring, considering the cross-section of the swinging direction. Letting the rotating angle of the swinging element be 1, the orbital angle of the rolling element is as small as 0.4. Then, the movement of the rolling element becomes relatively small. The prototype bearing with grooves in the housing had no problems, but the other one with grooves in the swinging element was different. That is, the rolling elements were positioned in a direction different to the swinging direction and pressed against the ball cage. Thus, if the pocket hole was narrow, the ball cage tended to move in the same motion angle as the swinging ele-

ment. Therefore, the shape of the pocket hole became that of a landscape as shown in Fig. 10. Table 2 shows design parameters, which will inuence the performance of the pivot bearing to be developed. In Table 2, terms (1)(5) are concerned with static performances such as surface pressure, displacement and stiffness. Terms (6) and (7) are concerned with dynamic performances such as torque. 3. Prototype and evaluation of bearing 3.1. Techniques for working process and assembly of bearing The most important factor in the swinging performance is the working process of the grooves for the rolling elements (balls). The dimension and accuracy of the groove inuence the capability of assembly and dynamic performance. In the prototype of this research, a ball-end mill with a diameter of 5 mm was used to make the grooves by a three-dimensional CNC milling process. Since grinding was not performed, surface roughness and form accuracy were not sufcient. However, in investigating

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Fig. 11. Schematic view of torque measurement apparatus.

the capability of swinging, it was considered that the ball-end milling was sufcient. Techniques for assembly and adjustment of the bearing were performed in the following procedure: (1) Preparing the rolling elements (balls) having slightly different diameters (from 10 to +10 m at integrals of 2 m, on the basis of a reference diameter); (2) Choosing adequate spheres (balls) in order to preload lightly and not to form a clearance in the bearing; (3) Tightening up the screws for coupling the upper and lower housings with constant torque. Thus, the accuracy of the groove dimensions should be within the limits of 10 to +10 m. 3.2. Measurement of torque for swinging The torque required for swinging was examined quantitatively. Fig. 11 shows the measuring apparatus. By evening up the pivot bearing, the pivot bearing was allocated by bringing

Fig. 13. Schematic view of stiffness measurement apparatus.

the horizontal center of swinging element in line with the vertical rotation center of the driving motor. The load cell was preloaded, then the oscillation of the force (torque) could be measured around the preloaded force using only one load cell.

Fig. 12. Example of oscillation in measured torque.

Fig. 14. Experimental relationship between axial load and displacement. (a) When sun ball (swinging element) has grooves; (b) when housings have grooves.

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The torque could be calculated by multiplying the measured force loaded on the swinging shaft by the radius of load cell position. Fig. 12 shows an example of the calculated torque. Here, torque = 0 means the average torque. The maximum torque to swing is determined by the magnitude of the preload in assembling the bearing. Therefore, the absolute magnitude of torque cannot be argued due to the measuring technique applied here, but it can be said that the oscillation of torque to swing was within 0.7 to +0.7 Nm. The magnitude of oscillation will be reduced in order to enhance the dimensional accuracy of grooves. 3.3. Experimental verication of stiffness In order to investigate the stiffness of the bearing, the axial displacement of the pivot bearing was measured as shown in Fig. 13. To keep the swinging shaft vertical, the housing was declined by 0 , 10 , 20 and 30 . Then, when the axial force was loaded, the axial displacement was measured using a displacement sensor. The declinations of housing were given by purpose-built pedestals, which had predened angles. In this way, the inuence of displacement other than the pivot bearing could be eliminated. Fig. 14 shows the relationship between axial load and displacement. Comparing the results with the analytical theory, namely Figs. 8 and 9 in the previous chapter, displacement became slightly larger and the stiffness, smaller. This may arise

from the accuracy in process and measuring errors and these factors will be examined hereafter. Moreover, by increasing the declination, the axial displacement became smaller and the stiffness became larger. This reason is believed to be as follows. The axial displacement of the bearing is expressed by Eq. (1). If the housing is positioned horizontally, the force is distributed uniformly. However, when the housing is inclined, the rolling elements tend to move. Then, the contact angles of the rolling elements to the loading direction (vertical) differ from each other and the axial displacement, which comes under the inuence of the contact angle and the partial charging force, also differs. The angle of declination increased with increasing ratio of magnitude for the partial charging force. This is because the contact angle becomes larger. That is, > as shown in Fig. 15. Therefore, this phenomenon results in the increase in contact angle. Hence, in the stiffness design, the lowest stiffness is obtained under the horizontal condition. Therefore, the value under the horizontal condition should exceed a design target value. Since the axial displacement under the horizontal condition can be calculated on the basis of the Hertzian contact theory, it is conrmed that the design calculation can be simplied. 4. Conclusions In this study, pivot bearings with two degrees of freedom were produced by applying the idea of constant velocity joint (CVJ) for a vehicle. Then, some performances were examined. A brief summary follows: (1) Both prototypes, that is, one having grooves in housings, the other having grooves in the swinging element, can swing smoothly. In other words, the variation of torque to swing was between 0.7 and +0.7 Nm. (2) The prototype having grooves in the swinging element is superior from the viewpoints of stiffness and contact surface pressure. However, in order to obtain a larger swinging angle, the shape of the pocket holes of ball cage should be that of a landscape. (3) It is conrmed that the stiffness becomes the smallest when the swinging shaft is vertical. This vertical situation makes stiffness design calculation simple. Swinging motion with two degrees of freedom can be realized by the structure in this research. In the future: (a) measurement for the process accuracy of parts, (b) optimum design of groove dimensions and (c) evolution to a bearing with three degrees of freedom will be investigated. References
[1] Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH & Co. KG catalogue of M-850 HEXAPOD six-axis parallel kinematics robot. CAT 1998;114(8):4. [2] Ooiwa T, Kubo N, Baba S. New coordinate measuring machine using parallel mechanism. J Jpn Soc Prec Eng 1999;65(2):28892. [3] Report of research group on machine tools by applying parallel mechanisms P-SC301. Japan Society for Mechanical Engineers; 2000.

Fig. 15. Geometrical situation of declined bearing.

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S. Noguchi et al. / Precision Engineering 30 (2006) 373380 [7] Ozaki K, Takeda M. Prototype of rolling bearing mechanism with threedegree-of-freedom. In: Proceedings of Japanese society of tribologists meeting. 1999. p. 399. [8] Takahashi H. Positioning mechanism of FPD inspection system. J Jpn Soc Prec Eng 2001;67(2):2115. [9] NSK Ltd. Technical report, no. 728e; 2002. p. 156.

[4] THK Co. Ltd. Total catalogue for translatory system, no. 401. p. t-21. [5] INA-Schaefer KG catalogue for components for parallel kinematics, market information MAI 66 US-D 08992.5. p. 2. [6] Hephaist Seiko Co. Ltd. Catalogue for positioning mechanism with multidegree-of-freedom no. 01112. p. 4.