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Name: faroug
Status: N/A
Grade: N/A
Location: N/A 
Country: N/A
Date: 1/25/2006
Question:
How are billiard balls and ball bearings produced to be perfectly round?

Replies:
A good summary of the process is located at this link:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question513.htm

or do a search at www.howstuffworks.com for "how are bearings made?"

Basically, wire is headed (sort of a combination stamping/cutoff process) into a rough sphere, then a special grinding machine is used to get them perfectly round. The machine runs the balls through grooves much like in a bearing assembly, but under pressure and with varying grades of abrasives. A succession of these machines, each grinding more and more finely, produces consistenly sized and smooth ball bearings.

Hope this helps!

David Brandt, P.E.


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