Reduced noise wheel hub unit
AssigneeAktiebolaget Skf
InventorsRiccardo Nardicchia, Paolo A Re
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A vehicular wheel hub unit includes a radially outer bearing ring, a radially inner bearing ring, and a plurality of rolling elements supporting the inner bearing ring and the outer bearing ring for relative rotation. The inner bearing ring has an axially facing metal coupling surface configured to frictionally engage a connecting surface of an element, such as a bell of a constant velocity joint, adjacent to the inner bearing ring, and the coupling surface includes at least one first region having a plurality of coupling surface ablations configured to affect an amount of friction between the coupling surface and the connecting surface. Also a method including ablating at least a first region of a coupling surface of an inner bearing ring.
Claims15
A vehicular wheel hub unit comprising:
- a radially outer bearing ring,
- a radially inner bearing ring, and
- a plurality of rolling elements supporting the inner bearing ring and the outer bearing ring for relative rotation,
- wherein the inner bearing ring has an axially facing metal coupling surface configured to frictionally engage a connecting surface of an element adjacent to the inner bearing ring,
- wherein the coupling surface includes at least one first region having a plurality of coupling surface ablations configured to affect an amount of friction between the coupling surface and the connecting surface, and
- wherein the at least one first region comprises a plurality first regions, each adjacent pair of first regions being separated by a non-ablated second region.
The wheel hub unit according to 9,
- wherein the microstructure in the form of crossed lines generates two different roughness values on the metal surface.
A method comprising:
- providing an inner bearing ring having an axially facing coupling surface configured to engage a connecting surface of a bell of a constant velocity joint, the axially facing coupling surface having an initial surface roughness,
- ablating at least one first region of the coupling surface to change the initial surface roughness of the at least one first region of the coupling surface to a new surface roughness and leaving at least one surface region of the coupling surface unablated, and
- assembling the inner bearing ring with an outer bearing ring and a plurality of rolling elements to form a vehicular wheel hub unit,
- wherein the new surface roughness is from 0.20 μm to 6 μm.
A vehicular wheel hub unit comprising:
- a radially outer bearing ring,
- a radially inner bearing ring, and
- a plurality of rolling elements supporting the inner bearing ring and the outer bearing ring for relative rotation,
- wherein the inner bearing ring has an axially facing metal coupling surface configured to frictionally engage a connecting surface of an element adjacent to the inner bearing ring,
- wherein the coupling surface includes at least one first region having a plurality of coupling surface ablations configured to affect an amount of friction between the coupling surface and the connecting surface,
- wherein each of the plurality of coupling surface ablations is circumferentially continuous, and
- wherein each of the plurality of coupling surface ablations comprises a wavy arc shape having a plurality of crests and troughs.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.