Flanged bearing ring for the hub of a motor vehicle wheel and a method of manufacturing same

#This United States Non-Provisional Utility application claims the benefit of copending Italy Provisional Patent Application Serial No. TO2011A000276, filed on 29 Mar. 2011, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.

#The present invention relates to a lightweight, flanged bearing ring for the hub of a motor vehicle wheel, particularly a rotatable ring with a flange providing connection to the wheel and/or the brake rotor. The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing a bearing ring of the aforementioned type.

#The motorcar industry has to comply with an ever increasing demand for weight reduction in motor vehicle components for the sake of cutting down fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. With a vehicle wheel bearing, weight reduction may not imply any reduction in strength and safety. The raceways must be made of a material hard enough to resist the stresses of rolling contact. Conventional bearing grade steel is still widely used. The raceways are heat treated so as to attain a level of hardness and microstructure homogeneity adequate to withstand the stresses caused by rolling Hertzian contact.

#In order that the present invention may be well understood there will now be described a preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:

#FIG. 1 is an axial cross-sectional view of a first embodiment of a flanged bearing ring according to the invention; and

#FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of a detail of FIG. 1.

#Before an embodiment of the invention is explained in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including”, “comprising”, and “forming”, and variations thereof, is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof.

#Referring initially to FIG. 1, designated overall at 10 is a flanged bearing ring in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. The ring 10, in this example, is designed to be the outer, rotatable ring of a double-row angular contact ball bearing for vehicle applications, particularly for mounting to a vehicle wheel (not shown) to be rotationally supported relative to a stationary suspension standard (not shown) of the vehicle around a central axis of rotation x. Throughout the present description and the claims, terms and expressions indicating positions and directions such as “radial” and “axial” are understood as referring to the axis of rotation x of the bearing. Expressions such as “axially inner” and “axially outer” instead refer to a condition when mounted on a vehicle.

#The ring 10 comprises a radially inner insert or core 15 of a generally tubular shape and a radially outer body 16 providing a radially outwardly extending flange 17 at the outboard side of the core 15. The flange 17 provides a number of bores 18 to allow connection to the vehicle wheel by means of stud bolts (not shown).