Heavy-duty hydrostatic bearing
AssigneeKugelfischer Georg Schafer & Co.
InventorsHeinz Korrenn, Horst Voll
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hydrostatic journal bearing for a shaft of a heavy load, such as a metallurgical vessel, comprises an inner ring of spherical outer surface rigid with the shaft, a stationary base forming part of a housing, and a segmental shell resting on the base as a cradle for the ring. The upper shell surface has pockets for high-pressure oil, supporting the ring in operation, while the lower shell surface has similar pockets near its axially extending edges designed to maintain the shell curvature close to that of the ring. The shell may be split into two relatively axially shiftable coaxial subshells with further oil pockets at their interface.
Claims10
A hydrostatic journal bearing comprising:
- a ring with a generally horizontal axis engageable with a shaft to be journaled in the bearing;
- a ring-segmental shell underneath said ring having a concave surface closely juxtaposed with part of an outer surface of said ring and substantially coaxial therewith, said shell extending about said axis over a portion of a circle and terminating in a pair of transverse edges substantially parallel to said axis;
- a base having an upper surface supporting said shell, the latter having a convex surface resting on said upper surface, at least one of said convex and upper surfaces being provided with a lower pocket of limited peripheral extent in the vicinity of each of said transverse edges, said concave surface being provided with a plurality of upper pockets opening onto said outer surface;
- and
- pump means communicating with said pockets for delivering a high-pressure fluid to said upper pockets under a pressure sufficient to prevent direct contact between said concave and outer surfaces and to said lower pockets under a localized pressure resiliently deforming said shell to control the separation of said concave surface from said outer surface at said transverse edges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.