Shopping cart swivel yoke assembly with plastic bearing races
OwnerJimmy L. Hicksinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An improved swivel yoke assembly for use on shopping carts. The yoke assembly is of the type having a steel yolk with forks which support a wheel. The yolk is permitted to swivel because it is supported between an upper and a lower set of ball bearings. The improvement comprises a polymeric bearing race below the upper set of ball bearings and a second polymeric bearing race above the lower set of ball bearings. The upper ball bearing race has a compound curve. The metal bearing races do not have to be heat treated and, thus, can be more accurately dimensioned. The assembly is better able to withstand the loss of lubricant in shopping cart washing operations.
Claims10
An improved swivel yoke assembly for use on shopping carts of the type having a wheel-supporting, steel yoke with two downwardly depending forks and a generally horizontal base between the forks, said base having an upper surface and a lower surface, a caster supporting king pin extending upwardly from said base, said base being supported between a lower set of ball bearings and an upper set of ball bearings, said upper set of ball bearings being held between an upper race and a lower race, and said lower set of ball bearings being held between an upper race and a lower race, wherein the improvement comprises:
- a polymeric lower race under the upper set of ball bearings, said polymeric lower race under the upper set of ball bearings being supported on the upper surface of said generally horizontal base of said steel yoke;
- and
- a polymeric upper race over the lower set of ball bearings, said polymeric upper race over the lower set of ball bearings being supported on the lower surface of said generally horizontal base of said steel yoke.
An improved swivel yoke assembly for shopping carts of the type having a steel yoke with a pair of forks depending downwardly from a yoke base, said yoke base having an upper surface with a lower surface and being rotatably supported between an upper set of ball bearings and a lower set of ball bearings, said upper set of ball bearings having an upper race member and lower race, and said lower set of ball bearings having an upper race and lower race member, and the upper race member of said upper set of ball bearings and said lower race member of said lower set of ball bearings being supported on a swivel yoke supporting king pin, wherein the improvement comprises:
- said lower race member of said upper set of ball bearings is fabricated from a polymer and is supported on the upper surface of said yoke base and is a separate added member from said yoke base;
- and
- said upper race member of said lower set of ball bearings is fabricated from a polymer and is supported on the lower surface of said yoke base and is a separate added member from said yoke base.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.