Food processor and bearing

Abstract

A food processor includes a power unit in a base connected to drive a rotatable hub mounted on a vertically-oriented drive shaft extending into a removable bowl with cutting means on the shaft. To this general combination an improvement has the shaft stepfitted into a porous oil-impregnated sleeve bearing that is fixedly press-fitted into and carried from the base within the hub. The bearing thus vertically and rotatably supports and lubricates the shaft. A radially extending flange with upper and lower surfaces, is provided on the top of the bearing. Spaced vertical channels are provided in the inner and outer bearing surfaces to extend the length of the bearing from the top flange end to the lower sleeve end in the base. Circular oil collecting grooves are disposed in the upper and lower radial flange surfaces with the grooves connected respectively to the inner and outer channels. This structural arrangement permits oil migrating up the bearing surfaces to be blocked from entering the bowl and collected in the grooves and directed back down the channels into the base.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.