Bearings – Rotary bearing – Antifriction bearing
Patent
1998-09-03
1999-12-14
Hannon, Thomas R.
Bearings
Rotary bearing
Antifriction bearing
384558, F16C 3372, F16C 2308
Patent
active
060008547
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention refers to a sealed bearing of the type described in the preamble of the accompanying claim 1.
The bearing itself is designed such as shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,411, and therefore this publication is incorporated in the present specification.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,653 discloses a sealed self-aligning roller bearing, of the type having an outer race ring, an inner race ring and a plurality of curved rollers disposed therebetween and being axially moveable relative to the race rings. The space between the inner race ring and the outer race ring at least at one side axially outside the rollers is sealed off by a sealing member arranged in an almost "floating manner", on one hand to provide a sealing effect by frictional engagement against both race rings and on the other hand to follow the axial adjustment movements of the rollers. One of the main features of bearings of this kind is that the adjustability and motion of the rollers may not be hampered by annular flanges or the like, the race rings thereby being freely adjustable relative to each other during axial and angular adjustment of the rollers to provide a proper bearing function.
A further important feature of such a bearing is that the very large misalignment, which can be achieved, makes it possible to insert even a full complement of rollers between the race rings without need of split bearing rings, detachable flanges or the like.
A problem appearing at such a sealed bearing is that, at sufficient misalignment of the bearing rings, and thereby the rollers, the sealing ring or rings may be pushed out from the space between the bearing race rings and then come loose.
This might happen as a result of such large misalignment, due to the fact that the rollers will move so far axially to compensate for the misalignment, that the end faces of the rollers may press against the surface of the sealing ring, thereby urging this to slide outside the bearing rings.
This drawback is most critical during the time the bearing is handled before being mounted in operative position, as the force for causing misalignments and displacements big enough to risk that the sealing member is pushed out off the bearing is not bigger than what can be caused by manual influence only.
An alternative would be to provide a fixed locking ring at the end face of the race ring, but such a locking ring could mean that the sealing member or even the bearing itself is damaged if the bearing rings and the rollers during operation should be extremely misaligned and displaced, as the sealing member then would be squeezed between the roller ends and the locking ring.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a solution of this problem, thereby ascertaining that the free-floating sealing ring or sealing rings of such a bearing, will not be pushed out of its position between the race rings of the bearing during misalignments and displacements normally occuring during handling, whereas at extreme operative displacement of the rollers, it can be pushed out rather than being damaged, and this has been achieved by giving the bearing the features defined in the accompanying claims.
Hereinafter the invention will be described in detail with reference to two embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments shown are intended only to exemplify the invention and are not to be seen as the only possible embodiments within the scope of the appended claims.
In drawing FIG. 1 shows an axial section through a bearing in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention. FIG. 2 illustrates in larger scale a portion of the outer race ring of the bearing shown in FIG. 1 with a sealing ring displaced axially as far as permitted.
FIG. 3 shows in a view similar to FIG. 2 a second embodiment of the invention and with the sealing ring in a free-floating position.
FIG. 4 is a view corresponding to FIG. 3 with the sealing ring shown in a trapped position.
FIG. 5 shows schematically and in bigger scale a portion of one embodiment of the sealing ring in a f
REFERENCES:
patent: 2767037 (1956-10-01), Williams
patent: 3366428 (1968-01-01), Smith
patent: 4978235 (1990-12-01), Jacob
patent: 5119446 (1992-06-01), Grafstrom et al.
patent: 5435653 (1995-07-01), Kellstrom
Dagnell Jan
Kellstrom Magnus
Aktiebolaget SKF
Hannon Thomas R.
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