Patent ID: 7377042

Claim:
A method of cold-forming near net shape metal roller blanks for anti-friction bearings comprising shearing a blank from wire of a predetermined size to a predetermined length, transferring the blank to a plurality of successive workstations, forming the blank at the workstations to create a main annular surface surrounding a latent rolling surface which can be machined away to produce said rolling surface, opposed roller end faces, and annular radiused corners at the ends of the main surface forming uniform transitions from the main surface to the end faces, the formation of the blank being performed in a manner such that the material forming the original sheared wire end faces is substantially fully excluded from the surface of the radiused corners, the blank being upset between a tool cavity and a die cavity, the blank being constrained by a floating die element capable of moving in the slide direction with the blank material while the blank is driven into the die cavity to shape the radiused corners of the blank so as to reduce the effects of friction between the blank and floating die element in the formation of the corners of the blank in the die cavity.