Patent ID: 7666102

Claim:
A ball cage for a constant velocity plunging joint, the ball cage comprising: an outer spherical control face for guiding the ball cage relative to an outer joint part of the constant velocity plunging joint, and outer free face; a plurality of circumferentially distributed windows for receiving torque transmitting balls, wherein the windows, jointly, define a central window plane (M), wherein a distance between the central window plane (M) and a first end face which de-limits the ball cage on a side of the spherical control face is less than a distance between the central window plane (M) and a second end face which delimits the ball cage on a side of the outer free face; and an inner spherical control face for guiding the ball cage relative to an inner joint part of the constant velocity plunging joint; wherein a center of the outer spherical control face and a center of the inner spherical control face are positioned at an axial distance from the central window plane, and wherein the outer spherical control face is hard-machined and the outer free face is soft-machined; wherein the first end face is unmachined and the second end face is machined, starting from a pre-formed annular blank; and wherein the outer free face extends from the second end face of the ball cage and ends before a plane defined by side faces of the windows, where the side faces are arranged proximate to the second end face.