Rolling-contact bearings
Assignee21GEO Corp.
InventorThomas J. Dobroth
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mechanism including a first pair of races having a first pair of raceways and a first rolling element operable to roll between the first pair of raceways, wherein at least one of the first pair of raceways has a substantially variable curvature along at least a portion of a path of the first rolling element. A program product that determines a solution by adjusting the curvature of a first pair of raceways on opposite sides of a rolling element, at least one of the first pair of raceways having a substantially variable curvature along the contact points in the direction of the corresponding range of motion for the rolling element.
Claims17
A rotary speed reducer comprising:
- a first pair of races comprising a first pair of raceways forming a closed loop;
- and
- a plurality of rolling elements operable to roll over a plurality of contact points on each of the
- first pair of raceways, wherein at least one of the first pair of raceways has a substantially variable curvature along the plurality of contact points
- wherein the cross product for the normal vectors for each pair of contact points is substantially zero.
A rotary speed reducer comprising:
- a first pair of races comprising a first pair of raceways forming a closed loop;
- and
- a plurality of rolling elements operable to roll over a plurality of contact points on each of the first pair of raceways, wherein at least one of the first pair of raceways has a substantially variable curvature at the plurality of contact points, the path length for any corresponding interval along the contact points for each of the pair of raceways being substantially the same.
A rotary speed reducer comprising:
- a first pair of races comprising a first pair of raceways forming a closed loop;
- and
- a plurality of rolling elements operable to roll over a plurality of contact points on each of the first pair of raceways, wherein at least one of the first pair of raceways has a substantially variable curvature along the plurality of contact points, wherein the plurality of rolling elements do not slide as they roll through the closed loop.
A rotary speed reducer comprising:
- a first race comprising a first raceway around a first closed loop;
- a pair of races comprising a pair of raceways around a pair of closed loops;
- and
- a plurality of rolling elements having a first rolling portion with a radius R1 and a pair of rolling portions with a radius R2, the first rolling portion being operable to roll over a first plurality of contact points on the first raceway, the pair of rolling portion each being operable to roll over a corresponding plurality of contact points on each of the pair of raceways, wherein at least one of the first raceway or the pair of raceways has a substantially variable curvature at the corresponding plurality of contact points, the path length along the first raceway being R1/R2 times the path length along the second raceway, wherein R1 does not equal R2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.