Method for producing the rolling elements of a ball roller bearing

A method for producing rolling elements of a ball roller bearing, the rolling elements are ball rollers which, starting from a basic spherical shape, have two flattenings forming side faces that are flattened from the basic spherical shape and are arranged parallel to one another and which have circular end troughs and between the end troughs, running surfaces of the ball rollers are arranged, and a width of the ball rollers between the end troughs amounts to about 70% of a diameter of the basic spherical shape, such that each flattening is about 15% of the diameter of the basic spherical shape, the method comprising the following steps:

• (A) cutting blank segments in a defined length from a round wire of defined diameter;
• (B) compression molding ball roller blanks with the end troughs in a mold of a closed die;
• and
• (C) grinding the ball roller blanks in a horizontal ball grinding machine, which is fed solely with ball roller blanks of identical size, to a desired final dimension, the ball grinding machine having two grinding wheels arranged parallel to each other, the grinding wheels having opposing grooves, wherein the grooves each have a groove depth that is 2 to 3 times the flattening, thereby ensuring that the ball roller blanks are driven in any possible position,
• wherein the blank segments, which are cut, have a volume, and as a result of the volume, during the compression molding an approximately tangential raceway transition from one ball roller half to another ball roller half is formed and material fibers, which run beneath the running surfaces of the ball rollers, parallel or approximately parallel to the running surfaces, are obtained.