The Timken Company

Gary E Kreider

Gary L Doll

Ryan D Evans

Peter W Lee

Harold E Hill

Ronald P Dickerhoff

Ronald L Widner

The wear resistance of a bi-directional tapered roller bearing is improved by applying a tribological coating to both the small and large end faces of the roller and to at least one of the rib faces of the bearing assembly.

Bi-directional tapered roller bearing assembly with improved wear resistance

An aluminum transmission or transaxle case contains a steel shaft which is supported in the case on two directly mounted tapered roller bearings, so that the two bearings confine the shaft both radially and axially. To compensate for the differences in expansion and contraction between the aluminum case and the steel shaft as the transmission or transaxle experiences variations in temperature, a race of at least one of the bearings is fitted with a compensating ring having a coefficient of thermal expansion greater than that of the case or shaft. As a consequence, the bearings operate at a generally uniform setting over a wide range of temperature variations.

Machine with thermally compensated bearings

A tapered roller bearing has a rib ring against which the large ends of the tapered rollers for the bearing bear to prevent those rollers from being expelled from the annular space between the tapered raceways. The rib ring includes a porous, yet rigid, core and a jacket which covers the exposed surfaces of the core, except along an abutment face at which the large end faces of the rollers contact the rib ring. Here the pores of the core are exposed. The core at one of its other faces has a groove and the jacket has a port that opens into the groove. Pressurized oil is directed through the port and into the groove, from which it flows through the pores of the core and emerges at the abutment surface where it reduces friction between the abutment surface and the roller end faces.

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Massillon, OH, United States of America

Gary E Kreider