Duplex powder metal bearing caps and method of making them
AssigneeGKN Sinter Metals, LLC
InventorsTerry M. Cadle, Joel H. Mandel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A main bearing cap (A′) made of powder metal has a body portion (Y) made from one powder metal material (Q), and a bearing arch portion (H), foot joint face portions (S) and/or wings (W) made of a different powder metal material (P). The material (Q) of the body portion (Y) is harder than the material (P) of the other portions (H, S, W), and the material (P) of the other portions (H, S, W) is relatively machinable. For the bearing arch portion (H), the machinability of the material (P) approximately matches the machinability of the bearing support structure (B) to which the bearing cap (A′) is assembled to produce a good quality bore and longer tool life during line boring. The bearing arch material (P) may be a bearing material.
Claims19
In a bearing cap to be bolted to a bearing support structure so as to define a bearing bore between a bore arch of said cap and said structure and in which bolt holes for securing said cap to said structure extend through feet of said cap and into said structure, said cap having at least two of said feet, one said foot on each side of said bore arch with at least one bolt hole extending through each said foot, the improvement wherein:
- said cap is made from at least two different sintered powder metal materials and one of said powder metal materials is harder than the other, and said harder material is selected from the group consisting of:
- a powder metal steel containing 0.45-0.65% carbon, 0.45-0.65% phosphorus and 2-4% copper;
- and a powder metal steel containing 0.3-0.7% carbon and 0-3% copper.
In a bearing cap to be bolted to a bearing support structure so as to define a bearing bore between a bore arch of said cap and said structure and in which bolt holes for securing said cap to said structure extend through feet of said cap and into said structure, said cap having at least two of said feet, one said foot on each side of said bore arch with at least one bolt hole extending through each said foot, the improvement wherein:
- said cap is made from at least two different sintered powder metal materials and one of said powder metal materials is softer than the other.
In a bearing cap to be bolted to a bearing support structure so as to define a bearing bore between a bore arch of said cap and said structure and in which bolt holes for securing said cap to said structure extend through feet of said cap and into said structure, said cap having at least two of said feet, one said foot on each side of said bore arch with at least one bolt hole extending through each said foot, the improvement wherein:
- said cap is made from at least two different sintered powder metal materials and one of said materials is hardened and the other material remains soft.
In a bearing cap to be bolted to a bearing support structure so as to define a bearing bore between a bore arch of said cap and said structure and in which bolt holes for securing said cap to said structure extend through feet of said cap and into said structure, said cap having at least two of said feet, one said foot on each side of said bore arch with at least one bolt hole extending through each said foot, the improvement wherein:
- said cap is made from at least two different sintered powder metal materials and said two materials differ in hardness, a body of said bearing cap is made of the harder one of said materials and an exposed surface of said bearing cap is made of the softer one of said materials.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.