Patent ID: 8905748

Claim:
A deformation-based micro-texturing apparatus, comprising a housing having first and second flexure bearing houses for rotatably supporting opposite ends of each of an upper roll and a lower roll to provide a roll gap between the upper roll and the lower roll, wherein at least one of the upper roll and the lower roll is driven to rotate by a respective motor, wherein at least one of the upper roll and the lower roll has one or more micro surface features to plastically deform a surface of a workpiece deformed by rolling action in the roll gap, and a roll gap adjusting device operably associated with the first and second flexure bearing houses that support the opposite ends of at least one of the upper roll and the lower roll for adjusting the roll gap to the final depth of the micro surface features to be imparted to the surface of the workpiece by said rolling action, said roll gap adjusting device comprising first and second electric actuators that press on the first and second flexure bearing houses associated with the opposite ends of the at least one of the upper roll and the lower roll and that, when energized, move the adjacent first and second flexure bearing houses in a vertical direction to adjust the roll gap for initial set-up and during real-time surface texturing of the workpiece.