Support assembly for movable shaft in particular for machinery for the food industry

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10161453-B2
Application number	US-201615563363-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2016
Priority date	Mar 31, 2015
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

A supporting assembly including a bearing, a bearing housing having an annular element housing and a base for fixing, and a cover for close fluid tight an opening of the housing element; the cover being cup-shaped and including an annular coupling portion to a radially outer lateral surface for housing the annular element. The coupling portion provided radially on the inside with at least a pair of teeth projecting radially towards the inside of the lid; the lateral surface of the annular element housing provided with an annular seat for the teeth of the lid, including: an annular groove disposed axially spaced with respect to a front edge of the housing element; axial grooves equal to the number of teeth present and that radially interrupt the front edge; and a bottom wall provided with a plurality of alternating troughs and projections arranged offset circumferentially with respect to the axial grooves.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A bearing assembly for movable, rolling or sliding shafts, comprising:
a bearing adapted to receive the movable shaft,
a bearing housing having an annular housing element and a fixing base or flange, and
a cover for fluid-tightly closing an inlet opening of an inner seat of the housing element within which the bearing is mounted; the cover providing a bottom wall, an annular lateral wall that extends transversely to the bottom wall, and an annular coupling portion that extends toward a radially outer lateral surface of the annular housing element, the coupling portion being integrally obtained on one end of the lateral wall of the cover, opposite to the bottom wall; wherein, in combination:
the cover is made in one piece of a synthetic plastic material and has the coupling portion thereof radially provided on the inside of at least one pair of teeth, radially projecting towards the inside of the cover and circumferentially spaced apart from each other, which extend each over a limited circumferential stretch of the coupling portion;
the radially outer lateral surface of the annular housing element is provided with an annular seat for receiving the teeth of the cover, the annular seat including: an annular groove arranged so as to be axially spaced apart with respect to a frontal rim of the housing element delimiting the inlet opening; a number of axial grooves equal to the number of teeth present on the cover and which radially interrupt at least part of the frontal rim of the housing element; and a bottom wall of the annular groove which is circumferentially provided with an alternating plurality of depressions and projecting parts, the projecting parts being arranged so as to be circumferentially staggered with respect to the axial grooves.

2. The bearing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the coupling portion is provided on the side opposite to the bottom wall of the cover with an annular sealing lip which frontally extends so as to protrude from the frontal rim of the coupling portion and which is made of the same synthetic plastic material as the cover so as to be elastically deformable in radial direction from the inside outwards;
the annular sealing lip being coupled in a fluid-tight manner and with radial interference to a stretch of the radially outer lateral surface of the annular housing element arranged on the opposite side of the frontal rim with respect to the annular groove and consisting of a conical surface stretch having its taper facing the cover.

3. The bearing assembly according to claim 2 , wherein the conical surface stretch defining the stretch of the radially outer lateral surface of the annular housing element which is coupled with interference to the annular lip has an inclination with respect to a symmetry axis thereof forming an acute angle of less than 10°.

4. The bearing assembly according to claim 2 wherein the cover and the annular sealing lip are made of polyurethane, by single-piece molding.

5. The bearing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the axial grooves have a radial depth identical to that of the annular groove obtained on the radially outer lateral surface of the housing element at the axial grooves themselves, so that respective bottom walls of the axial grooves and of the annular groove are arranged flush with one another.

6. The bearing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the projecting parts of the bottom wall of the annular groove each include a first circumferential stretch of flat surface raised above the bottom wall of the annular groove and a pair of second circumferential stretches of flat surface which flank the first stretch and form two inclined planes which connect the first surface stretch to the bottom wall of the annular groove.

7. The bearing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cover has two pairs of teeth arranged so as to be symmetrically circumferentially spaced apart, staggered by 90°; the radially outer lateral surface of the housing element having two pairs of axial grooves arranged so as to be symmetrically circumferentially spaced apart, staggered by 90°; and the bottom wall of the annular groove having eight circumferential sectors having the same angular width, consisting of four depressions delimited by four curved surfaces arranged substantially flush with the bottom wall of the annular groove and of four projecting parts which radially protrude with respect to the bottom wall of the annular groove, arranged alternating with the depressions.

8. The bearing assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the cover is radially provided on the outside with a plurality of circumferential recesses arranged so as to be circumferentially evenly spaced apart from one another, which are shaped so as to form respective gripping elements adapted to allow a user to manually rotate the cover with respect to the housing element.

9. The bearing assembly according to claim 8 , wherein the circumferential recesses are obtained radially on the outside on the coupling portion and are made so as to make radially thinner the coupling portion at the circumferential recesses themselves; the teeth of the cover being radially obtained on the inside of the coupling portion, at respective circumferential recesses, the latter weakening the cover so as to make the coupling portion elastically deformable radially outwards at least at the teeth.

Assignees

• Skf Ab

Inventors

• Falaschi Fabio
• Baracca Fausto

Classifications

• F16C33/723 Primary

  Shaft end sealing means, e.g. cup-shaped caps or covers · CPC title

• F16C35/02

  in the case of sliding-contact bearings · CPC title

• F16C17/02

  for radial load only · CPC title

• F16C35/00

  Rigid support of bearing units; Housings, e.g. caps, covers (F16C23/00 takes precedence) · CPC title