Bearing race manufactured from preprofiled wire
AssigneeINA Bearing Company, Inc.
InventorsHans W. Koch, Colin R. Tanner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An interlocking thrust washer is disclosed as well as a method for its manufacture. It is made from a flat wire section which is bent into a ring and held together by a complementing tongue and mouth which are formed of opposite ends of the wire. By this method, there is no material wasted.
Claims14
A bearing race for use in a bearing comprising a one-piece, pre-profiled, ring-shaped length of wire having only two ends, a tongue at one end of said wire, and a complementary mouth at the opposite end, said bearing race having opposite, substantially parallel first and second faces lying in spaced planes orthogonal to the axis of the bearing race, an annular groove formed in one of said faces, both of said tongue and said mouth extending through said bearing race from said first face to said second face whereby said tongue is interlocked with said mouth by axial engagement of said tongue in said mouth in a direction parallel to the axis of the bearing race.
A bearing race for use in a thrust bearing, said bearing race comprising an annular ring having a predetermined center of curvature and being formed by a process comprising the steps of:
- providing a predetermined length of wire having at least one face and two ends;
- forming a bearing groove in said face;
- forming said wire into said annular ring by bending said wire about a bending axis substantially coincident with the center of curvature of said ring such that said one face lies in a plane substantally orthogonal to said bending axis;
- forming interlocking means in said ends comprising a tongue at one of said two ends and a mouth at the other of said two ends;
- and
- interlocking said two ends by moving said two ends toward one another in a direction sbstantially parallel to said bending axis.
A method of making a bearing race for use in a thrust bearing, comprising the steps of:
- providing a predetermined length of wire having at least one face and two ends;
- forming a bearing groove in said face;
- forming said wire into an annular ring having a predetermined center of curvature by bending said wire about a bending axis substantially coincident with said center of curvature such that said one face lies in a plane substantially orthogonal to said bending axis;
- forming interlocking means in said ends comprising a tongue at one of said two ends and a mouth at the other of said two ends;
- and
- interlocking said two ends by moving said two ends toward one another in a direction substantially parallel to said bending axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.