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Procedia CIRP 62 (2017) 380 – 385

10th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering - CIRP ICME '16

Research on Rotational Accuracy of Cylindrical Roller Bearings

YU Yongjiana*, CHEN Guodinga, LI Jishunb,c, XUE Yujunc
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
b
Henan Key Laboratory for Machinery Design and Transmission System, Luoyang 471003, China
c
School of Mechanical Engineering, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471003, China

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-379-6427-8961; fax: +86-379-6427-8961. E-mail address: yuyongjian2008@126.com

Abstract

To investigate transferring mechanism of form error of bearing elements and rotational accuracy in cylindrical roller bearings, according to the
bearing components motion and geometric relationships, a prediction model for rotational accuracy of cylindrical roller bearings based on
roundness error of the inner raceway is presented. The effects of roundness error (i.e., amplitude, order) in the inner raceway, the number of
rollers and radial clearance on the radial runout of inner ring are analyzed. Analytic solutions of the radial runout of inner ring are deduced
when shapes of bearing elements are an ideal circle, which verifies the correctness of the presented model. The results show that the proposed
model has better precision accuracy.
©©2017
2016TheTheAuthors. Published
Authors. by Elsevier
Published B.V. This
by Elsevier B.V.is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the International Scientific Committee of “10th CIRP ICME Conference".
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering
Keywords: Cylindrical roller bearing; Rotational accuracy; Radial runout; Roundness error; Form error

1. Introduction difference and geometrical error of the balls on non-repetitive

The main function of rolling bearing is used to support
shafting and maintain its rotational accuracy. The rotary
accuracy of the bearing often directly affects the precision of
mechanical system[1,2]. During the processing of bearing
elements, geometrical error is inevitable. Geometrical error of
bearing elements is one of the most important factors which
cause the motion error of a bearing. Therefore, it is extremely
important to research the influence of geometrical error of
bearing elements on rotational accuracy of the bearing.
At the present, the research on rotational accuracy of rolling
bearing is mainly concerned on non-repetitive runout, orbit of
shaft center and radial runout. Okamoto et al. [3] developed a
model to predict the orbit of shaft center of a ball bearing
based on form errors of outer raceway. The influences of
number of balls, dimension error of balls and form error of the
raceways on the size and shape of the orbit of shaft center
were analyzed. Noguchi et al. [4-6] established a
computational model for non-repetitive runout of a ball
bearing considering form error of the outer raceway and
diameter error of balls, and analyzed the influences of
geometrical error of the raceways, ball numbers, diameter
runout of a ball bearing. Jang al.[7] analyzed the mechanism
of resulting in non-repetitive runout of a ball bearing which is
used in disks, and characterized the transmission path of non-
repetitive runout of a ball bearing from the bearing to the disk.
Yang et al.[8-10] developed a mathematical model and a five-
freedom model to study the effects of geometrical errors on
the non-repetitive runout of an angular contact ball bearing,
respectively. Liu et al.[11] proposed a computational model
about non-repetitive runout of a high-speed angular contact
ball bearing based on five-freedom quasi-static model, and
studied the influences of the waviness of bearing elements on
non-repetitive runout of an angular contact ball bearing. Li et
al.[12] established 5-DOF static model of non-repetitive
runout of deep groove ball bearings, and investigated the
influences of the distribution of diameter errors among rollers
and roundness error of the inner or outer raceway on non-
repetitive runout of a deep groove ball bearing. Bhateja et
al.[13] established a prediction model for rotational accuracy
of the cageless hollow roller radial bearing considering
dimension difference of rollers, and analyzed the influences of
the change of internal and external diameter of rollers,
diameter and the position of rollers on rotational accuracy of

2212-8271 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 10th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2017.01.002
 YU Yongjian et al. / Procedia CIRP 62 (2017) 380 – 385 381

bearing. Wang et al.[14] presented a model to predict inner raceway. m is harmonic number. Cim is the amplitude of
geometric accuracy of a roller bearing considering form error
the mth harmonic component in inner raceway. Mim is the
in the inner or outer raceway, and studied the effects of the
diameter error of roller, the amplitude and order of roundness phase angle of the mth harmonic component in inner raceway.
error in the raceways on geometrical precision of the bearing. Y
Previous research work mainly analyzed the influences of the
profile of inner and outer raceways on rotational accuracy of
bearing, and established a computational model for rotational
yi
accuracy of bearing based on roundness error of inner Zi
raceway[15]. A computational model for rotational accuracy
of bearing based on form error of outer raceway was
Ri
developed, and studied the effects of roundness error in the 'x
outer raceway on the radial runout of outer ring. Roundness
Ti

'y
error in the outer raceway is experimentally investigated and
the function relation between the radial runout of outer ring xi X
oi
and harmonic distribution parameters in the outer raceway
was obtained [16,17,18].
In this paper, according to the geometrical model of
cylindrical roller bearings, considering roundness error in the
inner raceway, a prediction method for the radial runout of
inner ring is presented. The influences of the amplitude and
order of roundness error in the inner raceway, number of
rollers and radial clearance on the radial runout of inner ring
are analyzed. Fig. 1. Geometric model of a cylindrical roller bearing

2. Mathemetical model of rotational accuracy 2.2. Contact state of the inner raceway

In this paper, some assumptions are made as follows: It is assumed that every roller below the bearing contacts
(1) The elastic deformation of bearing components is not with the outer raceway. According to geometric model of a
taken into account. cylindrical roller bearing, the center coordinates of the rollers
(2) The rollers are uniformly distributed in the is obtained. The inner ring is moved with a certain step in the
circumferential direction. plane XY. The position relationship (contact, separate,
(3) There is no relative slip between the rollers and the interference) between the rollers and the inner raceway is
raceways. obtained by the minimum distance between the surface of
(4) There are no axial geometric and form errors in the rollers and the inner raceway. The contact state of the inner
raceways and rollers. raceway is obtained in each location of inner ring.
Y
2.1. Geometric model of the bearing
yi
Only considering roundness error in the inner raceway, the
inner ring is a noncircular contour. The geometric model of a
cylindrical roller bearing is shown in Fig. 1. A global
Cartesian coordinate system XOY is set up at the center of the
bearing. The plane XY coincides with the center plane of outer
raceway. Local coordinate system xioiyi is set up at the center
of inner raceway, which only translates, and the plane xiyi O
X
coincides with the center plane of inner raceway. Outer ring is
fixed, and inner ring is rotated in this bearing. 'x is the oi xi
A Ti
displacement of inner ring in the horizontal direction, B
and 'y is the displacement in the vertical direction, which is
the radial runout value of inner ring. orj
In coordinate system xioiyi, when the inner ring turned an
angle D , the contour radius Ri(ș) of inner raceway is
expressed by equation (1).
f
Ri (T i ) d i / 2  ¦ Cim cos( m(T i  D )  M im ) (1)
m 1
Fig. 2. Geometric relationship between roller and inner raceway
When the inner ring is translated to a certain position, the
Where T i is position angle of any point on the inner
geometrical relationship between a roller and the inner
raceway in coordinate system xi oi yi . d i is the diameter of raceway is shown in Fig. 2. The distance between point E on
382 YU Yongjian et al. / Procedia CIRP 62 (2017) 380 – 385

the inner raceway and point F on the surface of the jth roller is The stable location of inner ring which satifies all
calculated by equation (2). conditions of the criterion is got, thus the center coordinates
of inner ring is obtained. The displacement of inner ring in the
EF Eorj  Dw / 2  vertical direction is the radial runout value of inner ring when
Where Eorj is the distance between the center of the jth roller inner ring is rotated an angle D .
and point E , which is calculated by equation(3). Y

 Eorj Eo  oiorj  2 Eoi u oiorj cos(T1 ) 

2
i
2

Where Eoi is the contour radius of point E on the inner

raceway, which is calculated by equation(4). oi orj is the
distance between the center of the inner ring and the center of
the jth roller. T1 is the angle between point E on the inner
raceway and the center of the jth roller in the circumferential O
X
direction,
 arcsin( Dw / d i ) d T1 d arcsin( Dw / d i ) .
f
Eoi Ri (T E ) d i / 2  ¦ Cim cos( mT E  mD  M im ) (4)
m 1

Where TE is the position angle of E point on the inner

raceway. 
In equation (2), when the angle T1 changes in a certain D
range, there is a minimum distance between point E on the
Y
inner raceway and point F on the surface of the jth roller,
which is the minimum distance between the surface of the jth
roller and the inner raceway. When the absolute value of the
minimum distance is less than the given tolerance, the jth
roller contacts with the inner raceway. When the minimum
distance is larger than the given tolerance, the jth roller is
separate from the inner raceway. When the minimum distance
is less than negative tolerance, there is interference between
the jth roller and the inner raceway. The position relationship k1 X
between the jth roller and the inner raceway is gained. o1 k2 kj
The position relationship between every roller below the
bearing and the inner raceway is obtained by the same way,
and the numbers and position angle of rollers which contact o2 oj
with the inner raceway is gained, thus getting the contact state
of the inner raceway when the inner ring is moved to a certain
position. Similarly, the contact states of the inner raceway are
obtained in all the positions of the inner ring.
(b)
2.3. Determination of the center coordinates of the inner ring Fig. 3. Contact status of inner raceway

In order to obtain the stable position from several positions 3. Verification of the presented prediction model
of the inner ring, the criterion is presented as follows: (1) no
interference between the rollers and the inner raceway. When To verify the correctness of the prediction method for the
different positions of the inner ring are given, some position radial runout of inner ring, the analytical algorithm for the
of the inner ring is not reasonable, where there is interference radial runout of inner ring is deduced when the shapes of
between the inner raceway and rollers. Obviously, there is no bearing components are an idea circle. The main parameters
interference between rollers and the inner raceway in of a cylindrical roller bearing are shown in Table.1.
cylindrical roller bearings. (2) At least one roller contact with
the inner raceway on both sides of Y axis. When there is only Table.1 Parameter of cylindrical roller bearing
one roller which contacts with the inner raceway, the inner parameter value
ring is not stable, as shown in Fig. 3a. When there is at least Diameter of inner raceway/mm 54.991
Diameter of outer raceway/mm 75.032
one roller contacting with the inner raceway on any side of Y-
Diameter of roller/mm 11
axis, the inner ring is stable. (3) the absolute value of the sum Number of roller 14
of slopes between the center of the rollers which contact with When shapes of the inner raceway, the outer raceway and
the inner raceway and the center of the outer ring is the the rollers are an idea circle, the inner raceway only contacts
minimum, as shown in Fig. 3b.
 YU Yongjian et al. / Procedia CIRP 62 (2017) 380 – 385 383

with two rollers below the bearing because of the radial 4. Results and analysis
clearance of bearing, as shown in Fig. 4.
Y 4.1. Effect of the amplitude of roundness error in inner
raceway on the radial runout of inner ring

Fig. 6 shows the effect of the amplitude of roundness error

yi in the inner raceway on the radial runout of inner ring. The
radial runout of inner ring increases linearly with the
amplitude of roundness error in the inner raceway. The results
show that the influence of the amplitude of roundness error on
the radial runout of inner ring is significant.
O
xi X 6
oi
5

Radial runout of inner ring/ȝm

4

O2
O1 3

Fig. 4. Calculation of radial runout of inner ring 2

The inner ring is turned an angle D . According to the

geometric relationship, it can be seen that 1

O1oi ( X i  X 1 )2  (Yi  Y1 )2 (d i  Dw ) / 2 (5)

0
O2oi ( X i  X 2 )2  (Yi  Y2 )2 (d i  Dw ) / 2 (6) 0.8 1.6 2.4 3.2 4.0 4.8 5.6
Amplitude of roundness error/ȝm
Where X1, Y1, X2, Y2 are the center coordinates of two rollers Fig. 6. Effects of the amplitude of roundness error on the radial runout of
at the bottom of bearing, X 1 0.5( d e  Dw ) cos E1 ˈ inner ring
Y1 0.5( d e  Dw ) sin E1 ˈ X 2
0.5( d e  Dw ) cos E 2 ˈ
4.2. Effect of the order of roundness error in inner raceway
Y2 0.5( d e  Dw ) sin E 2 , E is the position angle of rollers.
on the radial runout of inner ring
By solving simultaneous equation (5) and equation (6), the
center coordinates of the inner ring are calculated. The radial Fig. 7 shows the effect of the order of roundness error in
runout value of inner ring is obtained when it is turned an the inner raceway on the radial runout of inner ring. The
angle D . Similarly, the radial runout value of inner ring is radial runout of inner ring fluctuates with the increase of the
obtained with the inner ring turning any angle. order of roundness error in the inner raceway. When the order
The inner ring is rotated a whole circle, and the radial of the roundness error and number of rollers satisfies a certain
runout values of inner ring are calculated. The simulation relationship, the radial runout of inner ring significantly
results compare with theoretical analytical solutions is shown reduces.
in Fig. 5. The relative error is less than 0.09%. Therefore, the
presented prediction method sufficiently forecasts the
2.60
rotational accuracy of cylindrical roller bearings.
-0.0204 Prediction result 2.55
Analytical result
Radial runout of inner ring/ȝm

-0.0205 2.50
Radial runout value of inner ring /mm

-0.0206 2.45

-0.0207 2.40

-0.0208 2.35

-0.0209 2.30
2 4 6 8 10 12
Order of roundness error
-0.0210
Fig. 7. Effects of the order of roundness error on the radial runout of inner
ring
-0.0211
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400

Rotation angle of inner ring /°

Fig. 5. Comparision between prediction results and analytical results

384 YU Yongjian et al. / Procedia CIRP 62 (2017) 380 – 385

4.3. Effect of the number of rollers on the radial runout of the radial clearance on the radial runout of inner ring are
inner ring analyzed, the following conclusions are obtained.
(1) The effects of the amplitude of roundness error in the
Fig. 8 shows the number of rollers on the radial runout of inner raceway on the radial runout of inner ring are significant.
inner ring. The radial runout of inner ring has a decreasing (2) The radial runout of inner ring does not always decrease
fluctuation trend with the increase of number of rollers. The with the increase of number of rollers. The radial runout of
radial runout of inner ring does not always decrease with the inner ring significantly reduces when the order of the
increase of number of rollers. roundness error and number of rollers satisfies a certain
4.5 relationship.
(3) The increase in the radial runout of inner ring is
4.0
proportional with the increase of the radial clearance.
3.5
Radial runout of inner ring/ȝm

Acknowledgements
3.0

2.5
The authors gratefully thank the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 51375148) and the Project of Basic
2.0 and Advanced Technology Research of Henan Province of
China (No. 142300413217) for financial support. This work is
1.5
also supported by the Project of Basic and Advanced
1.0 Technology Research of Henan Province of China (No.
152300410081), the Key Research Program of the Higher
0.5 Education Institutions of Henan Province (No. 15A460022),
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
number of rollers and the Program for Innovative Research Team (in Science
Fig. 8. Effects of number of rollers on the radial runout of inner ring
and Technology) in University of Henan Province (No.
15IRTSTHN008).
4.4. Effect of radial clearance on the radial runout of inner
ring
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