By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Journal of Engineering -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by VerticalNews journalists, a patent by the inventors Ito, Hiroyoshi (Mie, JP); Oomoto, Kaoru (Mie, JP), filed on August 12, 2013, was published online on June 28, 2016.
The assignee for this patent, patent number 9377053, is NTN Corporation (Osaka, JP).
Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: "A rolling bearing device which incorporates an oil supply unit therein is conventional (see JP 2004-108388A). In this rolling bearing device, an oil supply unit is mounted on an inner diameter surface of one of two mutually opposed track rings of the rolling bearing, or a fixed-side track ring in this case. The oil supply unit includes a lubrication oil tank which stores lubrication oil; a pump which pumps out the lubrication oil stored in the lubrication oil tank into the bearing; and an electric power generator which drives the pump. The device also includes means which controls the pump in accordance with bearing conditions thereby controlling an amount of discharged oil.
"JP 2005-180629A discloses a rolling bearing device, which is loaded with grease therein. A lubrication oil of the same kind as the base oil of the grease is stored in a spacer adjacent to the rolling bearing. The lubrication oil inside the spacer is supplied to inside of the rolling bearing by means of capillary action.
"However, the arrangement such as disclosed in JP 2005-180629A, that lubrication oil inside the spacer is supplied to inside of the rolling bearing by capillary action, often results in excessive supply of the lubrication oil.
"Also, the lubrication oil stored in the spacer is consumed quickly, posing a problem that stable, long-term supply of lubrication oil is impossible."
In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, VerticalNews editors also obtained the inventors' summary information for this patent: "It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a rolling bearing device which is capable of supplying lubrication oil to the rolling bearing stably for a long time.
"Solution to Problem
"In order to solve the problems described above, the present invention provides a rolling bearing device including an oil supply unit which has: a lubrication oil tank with a discharge port of a lubrication oil; a pump which sucks the lubrication oil from the lubrication oil tank and discharge the lubrication oil; and an electric power source section for driving the pump. The oil supply unit is disposed inside a rolling bearing or inside a spacer which is placed adjacent to the rolling bearing, and the pump is operated intermittently.
"Since the pump is operated intermittently, excessive supply of the lubrication oil can be avoided and stable supply of the lubrication oil for a long term is achieved.
"In order to operate the pump intermittently, the electric power source section for driving the pump may include, for example: a power generator section which generates power by way of temperature difference between an inner and an outer rings in the rolling bearing; and a charging section which stores the electric power from the power generator section; and with this arrangement, the pump is driven when a voltage in the charging section attains a pump driving voltage.
"As another arrangement, the pump maybe driven to perform the first supply of the lubrication oil after the voltage in the charging section is held for a predetermined time since the voltage in the charging section attains the pump driving voltage.
"Also, there may be an arrangement that a cycle of charging to and discharging from the charging section is repeated for a plurality of times before the pump is driven to perform the first supply of the lubrication oil.
"Further, there may be an arrangement that an operation interval of the pump is controlled by a timer for holding the voltage in the charging section for a predetermined time in accordance with an operation time of the rolling bearing after the first supply of the lubrication oil is performed by driving the pump.
"Still further, the pump operation interval may be controlled by changing a number of times for which the cycle of charging to and discharging from the charging section is repeated, in accordance with an operation time of the rolling bearing.
"Advantages of the Invention
"According to the present invention, the pump is operated intermittently, whereby excessive supply of the lubrication oil is avoided, and stable, long-term supply of the lubrication oil is achieved."
For more information, see this patent: Ito, Hiroyoshi; Oomoto, Kaoru. Rolling Bearing Device. U.S. Patent Number 9377053, filed August 12, 2013, and published online on June 28, 2016. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=9377053.PN.&OS=PN/9377053RS=PN/9377053
Keywords for this news article include: Energy, Electric Power, NTN Corporation.
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