Assembly Technology

Assembly Line for Release Bearings

Task and Process

The system shown here serves to mount the release and test the bearings. The finished assembly comprises an inner ring, outer ring, ball cage, the balls, seals and a waved washer. These parts are fed automatically to the system.

The process starts by separating the inner and outer rings, which then pass through a measuring station before being placed onto the ring store. At this point, the system defines which rings are paired to a bearing. The matching balls are available in three different sizes. The system calls the tolerance class from the ball store to create an optimum pair.

The actual assembly is completed as follows: First, the outer rings, ball cage and balls are fitted and each component is cleaned with compressed air. Before the inner ring is placed into the joining station, steps are taken to check whether the correct number of balls has been supplied and whether the cage is in place. After the waved washer has been fitted and the touch seal on the motor side has been positioned, the inner ring is pressed in.

The finished bearing then undergoes a structure-borne noise test. This allows conclusions to be drawn about possible damage to the bearing rings or the balls. This allows nonconforming parts to be sorted automatically. Conforming parts are sent to the next processing stations via a conveyor.