Bearings – Rotary bearing – Antifriction bearing
Patent
1990-11-28
1991-10-29
Footland, Lenard A.
Bearings
Rotary bearing
Antifriction bearing
384611, F16C 2700
Patent
active
050610880
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a device for rotatably mounting a machine element, such as a shaft, on a machine body or the like, said device comprising a bearing housing mounted on said machine body, and a bearing member supported by said bearing housing and adapted to guide the shaft. A first aspect of the invention concerns a device for transmitting substantially only radial load, a second aspect of the invention concerns such a device for transmitting radial load in combination with a structure for taking up axial force, and a third aspect of the invention concerns such a structure for taking up axial force.
The bearing member of the device according to the invention need not be of any particular type but may be in the form of, for example, rolling bearings, slide bearings, or magnetic bearings. Since the invention has been developed to obviate inconveniences in the use of rolling bearings, the following description focuses on this type of bearing.
The bearing housing in known bearing devices of the type mentioned by way of introduction must be manufactured and mounted with precision so that the bearing member will not be worn out prematurely because of unevenly distributed load. Thus, the bearing housing need be constantly axially aligned with respect to the shaft, and must usually have an absolutely round mounting hole for the bearing member.
It is especially important that the bearing housing is manufactured and mounted with precision when it is to be used together with so-called high-precision bearings which, when accurately mounted in precision-made bearing housings, provide a more exact guiding of the shaft and a longer service life for the bearing or, alternatively, a higher number of revolutions, in comparison with standard bearings. In a comparatively large machine structure with a rotating shaft mounted in rolling bearings, it may, for instance, be desirable to increase the number of revolutions of the shaft in order to achieve higher efficiency. However, an increased number of revolutions of the shaft entails an increased running speed of the rolling elements of the rolling bearings and, consequently, a shorter service life of said bearings. In most cases, it is not realistic to keep the running speed of the rolling elements unchanged by reducing the diameter of the shaft, considering the ensuing impaired rigidity of the shaft and the cost of a possible exchange of said shaft. An alternative would be to use high-precision bearings but, for a large machine structure, it is often difficult or impossible to manufacture the bearing housing with sufficient precision and to maintain said housing sufficiently centered and axially aligned relative to the shaft. Also, high-precision bearings can many times not be used in comparatively large machine structures since these structures in operation often reach different temperatures on different sides of the shaft or the bearing housing, resulting in an incorrect alignment of the bearing housing due to dimensional variations caused by the varying temperatures of the machine structure.
Another problem associated with bearing devices of the type mentioned by way of introduction is that, in plain radial bearings adapted to take up only radial shaft load, so-called fretting corrosion often occurs at the mounting surfaces of the bearings which are not fixedly clamped axially. Furthermore, a loose mounting of the bearing member axially may entail a certain radial play either adjacent to the inner ring or the outer ring of the bearing, which in operation may shorten the service life of the bearing member.
The object of the present invention is to obviate the above inconveniences associated with known bearing devices of the type mentioned by way of introduction.
Therefore, a first aspect of the invention concerns a device of the type mentioned by way of introduction, which is characterised in that the bearing housing is mounted on the machine body by means of a plate-shaped supporting means with a main plane perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the s
REFERENCES:
patent: 2530323 (1950-11-01), Boyd
patent: 4235483 (1980-11-01), Schulze
patent: 4366995 (1983-01-01), Kocian
patent: 4915514 (1990-04-01), Soderlund
Footland Lenard A.
Hoganas AB
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