The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 27, 2017
Filed:
Nov. 03, 2014
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (US);
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (US);
Abstract
A compact deformation-based micro-texturing apparatus and method employ flexure bearing houses for rotatably supporting opposite ends of each of a first (e.g. upper) roll and a second (e.g. lower) roll to provide a working roll gap between the rolls, wherein at least one of the rolls has one or more micro surface features to plastically deform a surface of a workpiece deformed by rolling action in the roll gap. An electrical current may be passed through the workpiece to assist micro deformation. A roll gap adjusting device is operably associated with the first and second flexure bearing houses for adjusting the roll gap dimension to the final depth of the micro surface features to be imparted to the surface of the workpiece by the rolling action. A sheet material or antifriction element (e.g. journal bearing or bushing) is produced having at least one surface that includes rolled-in micro surface depressions wherein depressions have a lateral dimension of about 1 μm to about 10 mm and a depth of about 1 μm to about 10 mm, typically a lateral dimension of about 1 μm to about 100 μm and a depth of about 1 μm to about 100 μm.