Self-aligning arrangement for the eccentric mounting shaft of a vibratory compactor

Abstract

The drum of a vibratory compactor is normally resiliently rotatably mounted on a frame and has an eccentric shaft mounted therein by a pair of longitudinally bearing assemblies. The outer races of the bearing assemblies must be precisely mounted in bores defined in carriers secured on the drum and the bores must be precisely aligned to insure the co-incident relationship of the rotational axes of the drum and the shaft. In addition to the potential misalignment problem and manufacturing costs, the bearing assemblies must be preloaded towards each other and the load-carrying to size ratio of the bearing assemblies is normally relatively low. The above prior art problems are avoided by a self-aligning arrangement (28) of this invention which functions to mount a pair of longitudinally spaced bearing assemblies (23) on an eccentric mounting shaft (20) for permitting limited relative movement between the shaft (20) and a drum (11) to place the longitudinal axes (A,A') of the drum (11) and the shaft (20) in co-incident relationship relative to each other.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.