Unified rolling and bending process for roller bearing cages

A method for manufacturing a tapered roller bearing cage (10B), comprising:

• providing a straight segment of cage blank material (10), precisely dimensioned in width, length, and thickness selected to achieve finished dimensions of the tapered roller bearing cage (10B);
• feeding said straight segment of cage blank material (10) into a rolling mill (100), said rolling mill incorporating a pair of unparallel cylindrical forming rolls (102A, 102B) disposed such that a gap (G) between the forming rolls through which said cage blank material is fed has a wedge shape;
• plastically deforming said straight cage blank material (10) into an arc shape by passage through said gap (G) to reduce a thickness, and to elongate a length, of one lateral side of said cage blank material (10), such that the cage blank material increases in thickness from the one lateral side to another lateral side;
• passing said arc of cage blank material over a bend-inducing roll (104), said bend-inducing roll (104) bending the arc of cage blank material into a circular conical ring (10A);
• and
• securing opposite butt ends (12A, 12B) of said conical ring of cage blank material (10A) together to form said tapered roller bearing cage (10B) having an internal diameter of at least 500 mm.