FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE
The present disclosure relates to the field of bearings.
BACKGROUND
Bearings are positioned between a pair of moving parts in order to support and enable smooth transmission of relative motion therebetween. Bearings enable guiding and confining the motion between the moving parts while simultaneously reducing friction therebetween and restricting the loss of energy to the minimum. The reduction in friction consequently causes a reduction in wear and tear of the moving parts. The bearing includes a plurality of rolling elements sandwiched between an outer race and an inner race. The inner race and the outer race cooperate with the moving parts while the rolling elements are caused to rotate between the inner race and the outer race to support the radial loads, the axial loads or combined radial-axial loads resulting from the relative motion between the moving parts.
Conventional bearings involve similar size and type of rolling elements arranged along at least one row between the inner race and the outer race. The inner race and the outer race include a raceway/track, namely, a radial track, an axial track or an inclined track for defining a path for movement of the rolling elements. The number of rows of the rolling elements and their associated raceways/tracks defined on the inner race and the outer race are dependent on the type of load which are required to be supported by conventional bearings. The rolling elements are arranged on the raceway in a vertical manner, a horizontal manner or an inclined/angular manner, with respect to the bearing axis. One disadvantage of conventional bearing is that a balance between the radial and the axial load supporting capacity is required to be maintained by changing the contact angle of the rolling elements.
Thus, there was felt a need for a bearing assembly which will overcome the drawbacks of conventional bearings.
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OBJECTS
Some of the objects of the system of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment herein satisfies, are as follows:
Some of the objects of the system of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment herein satisfies, are as follows:
An object of the present disclosure is to provide a bearing assembly that is capable of withstanding both radial and axial loads.
Another object of the present disclosure is to provide a bearing assembly that eliminates the necessity of changing an inner race and an outer race depending on variation of load.
Still another object of the present disclosure is to provide a bearing assembly that reduces the cost of manufacturing bearings that support varying types of loads.
Further another object of the present disclosure is to provide a bearing assembly that is suited for a wide variety of applications.
An added object of the present disclosure is to provide a bearing assembly that has increased service life.
Yet another object of the present disclosure is to provide a bearing assembly that eliminates failure of the bearing assembly resulting from truncation.
Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description when read in conjunction with the accompanying figures, which are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
SUMMARY
In accordance with the present disclosure there is provided a bearing assembly comprising:
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 an outer race having a radial raceway and an axial raceway; and
 an inner race adapted to be concentrically disposed within the outer race, the inner race having a radial raceway complementary to the radial raceway of the outer race and an axial raceway complementary to the axial raceway of the outer race,
wherein radial raceways of the outer race and the inner race adapted to support radial load carrying rolling elements; and
wherein axial raceways of the outer race and the inner race adapted to support axial load carrying rolling elements.
The radial load carrying rolling elements are of different sizes.
The axial load carrying rolling elements are of different sizes.
The outer race has an annular plate defining a central opening and a peripheral wall extending perpendicularly from the annular plate.
The inner race has a flange portion parallel to the annular plate and a hollow hub concentric with the peripheral wall and extending perpendicularly from the flange portion.
At least one of the axial load carrying rolling elements and at least one of the radial load carrying rolling elements are arranged adjacent to each other.
The operative surface of the axial raceway and the radial raceway are orthogonal to each other.
The operative axis of the axial load carrying rolling elements and the radial load carrying rolling elements are perpendicular to each other.
The axial load carrying rolling elements and the radial load carrying rolling elements are arranged along a single row within the axial raceway and the radial raceway.
The axial load carrying rolling elements and the radial load carrying rolling elements are bearings selected from the group consisting at least one of ball shaped rolling element, truncated ball shaped rolling element, spherical disk shaped rolling element, tapered rolling element and cylindrical rolling element.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The bearing assembly of the present disclosure will now be described with the help of accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 illustrates a sectional side view of the bearing assembly in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;
Figure 2 illustrates a sectional front view of the bearing assembly along the line X-X shown in Figure 1;
Figure 3 illustrates a side view of an inner race of the bearing assembly of Figure 1;
Figure 4 illustrates a side view of an outer race of the bearing assembly of Figure 1; and
Figure 5 illustrates the arrangement of the rolling elements on the inner race.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The disclosure of the bearing assembly stems from the observation that conventional bearings require a separate inner race and outer race to support varying axial loads and varying radial loads. Further, in conventional bearing, a change in the contact angle of the rolling elements is required to be maintained in order to balance the radial and the axial load supporting capacity.
A system and a method of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to the embodiments which do not limit the scope and ambit of the disclosure.
The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiments in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples
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used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.
Referring to the accompanied drawings, the bearing assembly, in accordance with the present disclosure is generally indicated by the reference numeral 10 and is particularly shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2 of the drawing.
The bearing assembly (10), illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2, consists of an inner race (12), an outer race (14) and a plurality of rolling elements sandwiched therebetween. The rolling elements are typically classified into two types – an axial load carrying rolling member (16a) and a radial load carrying rolling member (16b). The number of axial load carrying rolling member (16a) and the number of radial load carrying rolling member (16b) are dependent on the type of load required to be supported by the bearing assembly (10). The bearing assembly (10) operates about a bearing axis Y.
The inner race (12), shown in Figure 3, has a flange portion (13a) and a hub portion (13b) extending perpendicularly from the flange portion (13a). The flange portion (13a) defines an axial raceway in the form of a groove (18) while the hub portion (13b) defines a radial raceway in the form of a support surface (20). The outer race (14), shown in Figure 4, is defined by an annular plate (23) having a central opening (23a) and a peripheral wall (25). The annular plate (23) defines an axial raceway in the form of a groove (22) while the peripheral wall (25) defines a radial raceway in the form of a complementary support surface (24). The groove (18) of the inner race (12) is complementary to the groove (22) of the annular plate (23).
The support surface (20) of the inner race (12) and the complementary support surface (24) of the outer race (14), are parallel to each other and the bearing axis Y. On the
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other hand, the groove (18) of the inner race (12) and the groove (22)) of the outer race (14), are parallel to each other and perpendicular to the bearing axis Y.
The outer race (14) cooperates with the inner race (12) such that an annular channel (27) is defined between the flange portion (13b), the annular plate (23), the hollow hub (13b) and the peripheral wall (25). The support surface (20) in cooperation with the complementary support surface (24), that is, the space between the hollow hub (13b) and the peripheral wall (25) supports the radial rolling members (16b). Similarly, the groove (18) of the inner race (12) and the groove (22) of the outer race (14) support the axial load carrying rolling elements (16a). The axial load carrying rolling elements (16a) and the radial load carrying rolling elements (16b) are arranged in a single row along the axial raceways and the radial raceways respectively. The axial load carrying rolling elements (16a) and the radial load carrying rolling elements (16b) are arranged, either horizontally or vertically, with respect to the bearing axis. The axial load carrying rolling members (16a) and the radial load carrying rolling members (16b) are arranged so as to be perpendicular to each other.
The axial load carrying rolling members (16a) and the radial load carrying rolling members (16b) are typically ball shaped rolling element, truncated ball shaped rolling element, spherical disk shaped rolling element, tapered rolling element, cylindrical rolling element or a combination thereof. The bearing assembly (10) typically includes a combination of the axial load carrying rolling members (16a) and the radial load carrying rolling members (16b) having varying or similar shape and size. A balance between the radial load bearing capacity and the axial load bearing capacity of the bearing assembly (10) is achieved by the varying the number of the axial load carrying rolling members (16a) and the radial load carrying rolling members (16b).
Figure 5 illustrates the axial load carrying rolling members (16a) and the radial load carrying rolling members (16b) positioned inline between the inner race (12) and the outer race (14). The radial load carrying rolling members (16b) are supported between the support surface (20) and the complementary support surface (24) of the inner race
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(12) and the outer race (14) respectively. The axial load carrying rolling members (16a) are supported between the groove (18) and the groove (22) of the inner race (12) and the outer race (14) respectively.
The inner race (12) and the outer race (22) are fitted with corresponding moving parts. When the bearing assembly (10) is subjected to a radial load, either from the inner race (12) to the outer race (14) or vice versa, the radial load carrying rolling members (16b) supports a considerable portion of the radial load and a negligible portion of the radial load is supported by the axial load carrying rolling members (16a). Similarly, when the bearing assembly (10) is subjected to axial load, either from the inner race (12) to the outer race (14) or vice versa, the axial load carrying rolling members (16a) supports a considerable portion of the axial load and a negligible portion of the axial load is supported by the radial load carrying rolling members (16b). The bearing assembly (10) is adjustable to support the loads varying from pure radial loads to pure axial loads without modifying the inner race (12) and the outer race (14) to cater to the variation in the load.
Thus, the bearing assembly (10) helps in achieving increased load rating thereby increasing the service life of the bearing assembly.
TEST DATA
Tests were conducted on the bearing assembly of the present disclosure using various combinations of radial load carrying elements and axial load carrying elements. As illustrated in Table 1, various combinations of the radial load carrying rolling members (referred to as radial load carrying element in Table 1) and the axial load carrying rolling members (referred to as axial load carrying element in Table 1) were tested and the respective radial load rating Cr and axial load rating Ca were calculated and are listed herein below in Table 1.
Table 1
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In conventional bearing assemblies, there is only one kind of load carrying rolling members such as balls or cylinders or other rolling members. Due to implementation of only one type of load carrying rolling members, conventional load bearing assembly either carries only radial load with minimum of axial load or only axial load with minimum of radial load. In bearing assembly of the present disclosure, load carrying rolling members for carrying both the radial load and the axial load are incorporated. As illustrated in Table 1, load carrying capacity of one of the load carrying rolling member is constant and load carrying capacity of the other load carrying rolling member is increased. As illustrated in Table 1, the radial load carrying capacity for a bearing with 12 cylindrical rollers of the same bearing dimensions is 33300 N with very small axial load carrying capacity. However, by including 4 spherical balls, radial load carrying capacity is increased to 17300 N. Similarly, radial load carrying capacity for a bearing with pre-determined number of spherical rollers, balls and truncated balls may be increased.
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Therefore, bearing assembly of the present disclosure enables efficient bearing of the axial load as well as the radial load as the starting and running torque are distributed between the radial load carrying rolling members and axial load carrying rolling members.
Further, Finite Element Analysis (not shown) was carried out wherein radial load carrying rolling members and axial load carrying rolling members were subjected to pure radial loads and pure axial loads respectively. Further, the radial tracks of the inner race and the outer race of the bearing assembly of the present disclosure were subjected to pure radial load while the axial tracks of the inner race and the outer race of the bearing assembly of the present disclosure were subjected to pure axial load. In accordance with the Finite Element Analysis, the bearing assembly of the present disclosure enables efficient carrying of both radial load and axial load.
TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS
The technical advancements offered by the present disclosure include the realization of:
 a bearing assembly that is easily adjustable rolling elements to support pure axial load and pure radial load;
 a bearing assembly that eliminates the necessity of changing an inner race and an outer race depending on variation of load;
 a bearing assembly that reduces the cost of manufacturing bearings that support varying types of loads;
 a bearing assembly that is suited for a wide variety of applications.
 improving the load bearing rating of a bearing assembly;
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 increasing the service life of the bearing assembly;
 elimination of failure of the bearing assembly due to truncation; and
 a bearing assembly capable of supporting loads varying from pure radial load to pure axial load without modifying the inner race and the outer race.
Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.
The use of the expression “at least” or “at least one” suggests the use of one or more elements or ingredients or quantities, as the use may be in the embodiment of the disclosure to achieve one or more of the desired objects or results.
The numerical values given of various physical parameters, dimensions and quantities are only approximate values and it is envisaged that the values higher or lower than the numerical value assigned to the physical parameters, dimensions and quantities fall within the scope of the disclosure unless there is a statement in the specification to the contrary.
Wherever a range of values is specified, a value up to 10% below and above the lowest and highest numerical value respectively, of the specified range, is included in the scope of the disclosure.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The terms "comprises," "comprising," “including,” and “having,” are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude
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the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The method steps, processes, and operations described herein are not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance in the particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specifically identified as an order of performance. It is also to be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed.
When an element or layer is referred to as being "on", “engaged to”, "connected to" or "coupled to" another element or layer, it may be directly on, engaged, connected or coupled to the other element or layer, or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly on," “directly engaged to”, "directly connected to" or "directly coupled to" another element or layer, there may be no intervening elements or layers present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.). As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Terms such as “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms when used herein do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the example embodiments.
Spatially relative terms, such as “inner,” “outer,” “beneath”, “below”, “lower”, “above”, “upper” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated
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in the figures. Spatially relative terms may be intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the example term “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the embodiments as described herein.

WE CLAIM:
1. A bearing assembly comprising: an outer race having a radial raceway and an axial raceway; and an inner race adapted to be concentrically disposed within said outer race, said inner race having a radial raceway complementary to said radial raceway of said outer race and an axial raceway complementary to said axial raceway of said outer race,
wherein radial raceways of said outer race and said inner race adapted to support radial load carrying rolling elements; and
wherein axial raceways of said outer race and said inner race adapted to support axial load carrying rolling elements.
2. The bearing assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said radial load carrying rolling elements are of different sizes.
3. The bearing assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said axial load carrying rolling elements are of different sizes.
4. The bearing assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said outer race has an annular plate defining a central opening and a peripheral wall extending perpendicularly from said annular plate.
5. The bearing assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein said inner race has a flange portion parallel to said annular plate and a hollow hub concentric with said peripheral wall and extending perpendicularly from said flange portion.
6. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of said axial load carrying rolling elements and at least one of said radial load carrying rolling elements are arranged adjacent to each other.
7. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the operative surface of said axial raceway and said radial raceway are orthogonal to each other.
8. The assembly as claimed in claim l, wherein the operative axis of said axial load
carrying rolling elements and said radial load carrying rolling elements are
perpendicular to each other.
9. The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said axial load carrying rolling
elements and said radial load carrying rolling elements are arranged along a single
row within said axial raceway and said radial raceway.
10.The assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said axial load carrying rolling
elements and said radial load carrying rolling elements are bearings selected from
the group consisting at least one of ball shaped rolling element, truncated ball
shaped rolling element, spherical disk shaped rolling element, tapered rolling
element and cylindrical rolling element"