Angularly biassed self-aligning bearing
AssigneeJohnson Electric S.A.
InventorGerorg Strobl
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An angularly biassed self-aligning bearing has a bearing member which is seated in a housing and held in place by a retainer which urges a first external, part-spherical, surface-of-revolution on the bearing member axially into engagement with an internal, part-spherical, surface-of-revolution formed in the housing. The retainer has first and second resilient retaining members which engage opposite sides of a transversely extending first portion of a second external surface-of-revolution on the bearing member. The first resilient retaining members exert greater loading on the bearing member than the second resilient retaining members so that the bearing member is tilted relative to the housing.
Claims16
An angularly biassed self-aligning bearing comprising:
- a bearing member with an outer surface having first and second external surfaces formed around the axis of the bearing member in which:
- the first external surface is a part-spherical surface-of-revolution having a center of curvature lying on the axis of the bearing member;
- and
- the second external surface is a second surface-of-revolution formed around the axis of the bearing member, is non-coincident with all imaginary spherical surfaces having the same center of curvature as the first external part-spherical surface-of-revolution and comprises at least one first portion which extends transversely of the axis of the bearing member;
- a housing, for accommodating the bearing member, having an internal surface-of-revolution, formed around the axis of the housing;
- and
- first and second resilient retaining means supported in engagement with the transversely extending first portion of the second external surface-of-revolution and resiliently distorted so as to urge the first external part-spherical surface-of-revolution axially into engagement with the internal surface-of-revolution and to impose turning moments which tilt the bearing member by a predetermined amount relative to the housing about an axis perpendicular to the axis of the housing.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.