Retainer for rotary cone drill bit
AssigneeCaterpillar Inc.
InventorsSwetha Suresh, Ebi Bernard, Tamilmurasu Annadurai, Chetan Dahiwal
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This disclosure describes, in part, systems and structures for a rotary cone drill bit having a body and rolling cone cutters, wherein the rolling cone cutters are coupled to the body through a bearing retention interface including ball bearings in a captured channel between the body and the rolling cone cutters. The ball bearings are inserted through an opening that is subsequently filled with a retainer pin having an engagement feature that ensures alignment of the retainer pin with respect to the captured channel and the ball bearings to reduce wear within the rotary cone drill bit.
Claims7
A rotary cone drill bit comprising:
- a bit body having an upper portion adapted for connection to a drill string for rotation of the rotary cone drill bit;
- one or more support arms attached to and extending from the bit body opposite the upper portion, each of the one or more support arms comprising a journal having a first bearing surface, the journal projecting generally downwardly and inwardly with respect to an associated support arm of the one or more support arms;
- one or more cutter cone assemblies equal to a number of support arms with each cutter cone assembly respectively rotatably mounted on one of the one or more support arms;
- an opening formed in an exterior surface of each support arm with a ball retainer passageway extending from the opening in the exterior surface of the support arm wherein the opening and the ball retainer passageway are configured to receive whereby ball bearings, the ball bearings configured to rotatably secure a respective cutter cone assembly on the journal, the opening defining a first engaging feature in a perimeter of the opening;
- and
- a retainer pin configured to insert into the opening and the ball retainer passageway, the retainer pin comprising:
- a first end having a contact surface configured to interface with the bearing surface of the journal;
- and
- a second end having a cylindrical shape and configured to fit within the opening, wherein the second end comprises a second engaging feature comprising a protrusion extending from a perimeter of the cylindrical shape configured to engage with the first engaging feature of the opening to align the retainer pin within the ball retainer passageway such that the contact surface is tangent to the bearing surface of the journal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.