Assemblies and methods for multistage sealing of roller bearings

A spherical roller bearing assembly for accommodating rotation about an axis, said bearing assembly comprising:

• an outer race having ends and raceways with spherical profiles presented inwardly toward the axis;
• an inner race having ends and contoured raceways presented outwardly toward the raceways of the outer race and defining a bore there between, the bore having a outer end and an inner end, the inner race at each of its ends having sealing surfaces that are inclined inwardly away from the raceways and toward the axis;
• spherical rollers arranged in two rows between the outer and inner raceways, there being a separate row around each inner raceway;
• and
• a seal closing the outer end of the bore, the seal including a seal case supported by the outer race at its end, a first sealing element carried by the seal case, the first sealing element being oriented outwardly from the rollers and bearing directly against the sealing surface on the inner race and forming a first stage sealing contact along an inner portion of the sealing surface in a direction towards the outer end of the bore, and a second sealing element carried by the seal case and bearing directly against the sealing surface of the inner race external to the first stage sealing contact and forming a second stage sealing contact proximate to an end of the sealing surface.

A spherical roller bearing assembly for accommodating rotation about an axis, said bearing assembly comprising:

• an outer race having ends and raceways with spherical profiles presented inwardly toward the axis;
• an inner race having ends and contoured raceways presented outwardly toward the raceways of the outer race forming a bore there between, the bore having a outer end and an inner end, the inner race at each of its ends having sealing surfaces that are inclined inwardly away from the raceways and toward the axis;
• spherical rollers arranged in two rows between the outer and inner raceways, each row being around a different inner raceway;
• a seal closing the outer end of the bore, the seal including a seal case supported by the outer race at its end, a first sealing element carried by the seal case, the first sealing element being oriented outwardly from the rollers and bearing directly against the sealing surface on the inner race and forming a first stage sealing contact in a direction towards the outer end of the bore, a second sealing element carried by the seal case and forming a second stage sealing contact;
• and
• a shield supported by the inner race and defining an inner sealing surface, the second sealing element bearing directly against the inner surface of the shield to establish a face seal contact as the second stage seal contact.

A bearing assembly for accommodating rotation about an axis wherein the assembly has an outer race having an end and a raceway presented inwardly toward the axis, an inner race having an end and a raceway presented outwardly toward the raceway of the outer race for forming a bore there between, the inner race at its end includes a sealing surface that is inclined inwardly away from the raceway and toward the axis, and rollers arranged in a row between the outer and inner raceways;

• the bearing assembly further comprising:
• means for establishing a static fluid barrier with the outer race;
• means for establishing a dynamic fluid barriers with the sealing surface of the inner race;
• and
• means for establishing a second dynamic fluid barrier with at least one of the sealing surface of the inner race and a sealing surface of a shield supported by the inner race.