USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Thomas L Daugherty

Jeffrey A Wong

Gordon D Huntzberry

Nathan T Sides

Precise quantities of lubricant from separate reservoirs under automatic trol are injected into chambers of housings of shielded rolling element bearings. Separate feed line conduits directly deliver the lubricant to the shielded critical surfaces of such bearings and insure maintenance-free operation of machinery with which the bearings are associated.

Shielded bearing lubrication

An apparatus for mounting face-to-face angular contact bearings to ensure eload control. Face-to-face angular contact paired bearings have inner races and outer races. The inner races of the bearings are fitted on an element to be supported such as a shaft. The outer races of the bearings are fitted in a bearing housing with a first gap .DELTA.1 therebetween. Preloading of the bearings is achieved by inserting preload springs between external surfaces of the outer races and respective bearing housing surf aces. A second gap .DELTA.2 may also be provided between the bearing housing and the external surface of one of the outer races to prevent a change in preload due to thermal gradients.

Duplex rolling element bearing mounting for ensuring preload control

A thrust bearing for vibration reduction application which isolates the tst shoes so that transmissions of vibrations induced by drag on the thrust shoes are attenuated or avoided. A thrust shoe carrier isolates the thrust shoes from the relatively stationary platform in which the bearing operates by providing a damped spring system with relatively low stiffness in the axial direction and relatively high stiffness in the torsional and radial directions.

Vibration reducing thrust bearing

An outboard water lubricated marine bearing assembly having a cylindrical using and a plurality of stave pads disposed about the inner periphery of the housing for slidably supporting a rotatable shaft extending therethrough. The improvement resides in the stave pad design including a cap of elastomeric material facing the shaft defining a resiliently deformable slidable bearing surface conformable to the shaft and supporting it by a force having a pressure profile progressively increasing across substantially the entire width of the bearing surface from leading to trailing edges thereof for greater overall load carrying capacity.

Hydrodynamic bearing with extended pressure gradient

A bearing pad for slidably supporting a relatively movable load applying ber. The pad comprises a face member swingably mounted on a base member and having a bearing surface laterally offset toward the leading edge from the nadir of the base member and facing the movable member whereby the load normal to the bearing surface and frictional drag across the bearing surface both act to cause the face member to swing arcuately in the direction of movement of the moving member thereby tilting the bearing surface for trapping a wedged shaped film of lubricant between the bearing surface and the movable member.

Growing community of inventors

Arnold, MD, United States of America

Thomas L Daugherty