Device for removal of lubricant from a bearing assembly

Abstract

A bearing assembly includes a shaft rotating about an axis and a bearing being acted upon by a liquid lubricant and supporting the shaft. A device for removing the lubricant from the bearing assembly includes at least one sealing assembly adjacent the bearing. The sealing assembly has a seal surrounding the shaft and a collector chamber disposed between the seal and the bearing. The collector chamber surrounds the shaft and receives the lubricant from the bearing along the shaft. The lubricant is removed from the collector chamber through a drain conduit. According to one embodiment, a funnel protrudes into the collector chamber for collecting the lubricant and removing the lubricant to the drain conduit. According to another embodiment, the collector chamber has a wall being approximately rectilinear relative to the axis and has a cross section perpendicular to the axis being formed by at least one spiral section encompassing the axis and one intermediate section closing the wall, and the drain conduit discharges into the wall in the region of the intermediate section.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.