The influence of the residual stress in surface of ceramic balls on the fatigue life is large, because the life of silicon nitride ball bearings is more sensitive to the load acted on the bearings than the life of all-steel ball bearings. In this paper, the influence of thermal stress produced in sintering and mechanical stress formed in lapping process on residual stress in surface of silicon nitride ceramic balls was discussed. The residual compress stress will be formed in the surface of silicon nitride ceramic balls after sintering. The residual tensile stress will be formed in surface of silicon nitride ceramic balls in lapping process, and the size of abrasive particle is smaller, such trend is stronger. In this paper the residual stress was measured by the xylometric measurement in which the material in surface was peeled with lapping. The distribution of residual stress in surface can be calculated with the variation in specific volume. The technological parameter with which the material was peeled by lapping was given, for minimizing the extra influence of the residual stress forming in peeling on the original residual stress in surface, the abrasive particle size would not be too small and the load impressed would not be too large. Some experimental researches on residual stress in surface of silicon nitride ceramic balls were made. The surface of silicon nitride ceramic balls presented residual compressive stress after sintering and the influence of the ball size on the residual stress is feeble. It is expected that the size of ball blank is same for achieving the same residual compressive stress in surface on balls after final machining. In lapping process, the surface of silicon nitride ceramic balls presented residual tensile stress, the larger the load which is impressed on single ball, the larger the amplitude of residual tensile stress is; the smaller the abrasive particle, the stronger the trend of plastic deformation is and the larger the amplitude of residual tensile stress is.
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