US 4,060,289 AGranted

Bearing assembly for an auger scraper

AssigneeCaterpillar Tractor Co.

InventorsJames Edgar Gee, Edward Joseph Ohms

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Abstract

A scraper which has a bowl provided with an upright auger has a bottom bearing assembly on the bowl floor which supports the auger. The bearing assembly has a fixed lower housing with a stepped cavity containing bearings, and an upper housing rotatably carried in the bearings that has a through bore affording a lubricant chamber. The lower and upper housings have confronting external flanges between which is a metal-to-metal lubricant seal having elastomeric rings that must be compressed to make the seal effective. The bearing assembly includes surface engaging preload means in the through bore to depress the upper housing and thus compress the elastomeric rings, after which a cover plate is fastened on the top of the upper housing member and the lower end of the auger shaft is seated on a mating square stub on the cover plate. The weight of the auger further depresses the upper housing to disengage the surfaces of the preload means.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A bearing assembly for rotatably supporting the lower end of an auger adjacent the floor of a self-loading auger scraper bowl, said assembly comprising, in combination:

a lower, fixed housing member mounted adjacent the bowl floor, said fixed housing member having a stepped cylindrical cavity and an external, annular top flange;
bearing means in said cavity;
an upper housing member rotatably carried on said bearing means, said upper housing member having an external annular upper flange confronting said top flange;
means surmounting said upper housing which is adapted to receive the lower end of an auger shaft;
annular lubricant seal means mounted between said annular flanges, said seal means including elastomeric ring means which must be compressed to make said seal means effective;
and means for preloading said upper housing member to compress said elastomeric ring means, said preloading means comprising fixed means secured to the lower housing member, and force multiplying means engageable with said fixed means, said force multiplying means including flange means which bears upon a transverse surface of the upper housing to depress said upper housing and thereby force said upper flange against the seal means, said upper housing member being further depressed by the weight of the auger to separate said transverse surface from said flange means.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.