Track bushing and method and apparatus for producing the same

Abstract

Quenched layers are formed without irregularities on the inner circumferential surface of a track bushing having a small inside diameter or on the inner circumferential surfaces of two or more track bushings which are subjected to quenching in an overlapped condition. To introduce a cooling medium for cooling the inner circumferential surface of the track bushing, a guide tube having an outside diameter smaller than the inside diameter of the track bushing is disposed on the side of the inner circumferential surface and the cooling medium introduced by the guide tube is diverted by a diverting member having a spherical or similar curved surface, such that the cooling medium is allowed to flow in a direction substantially parallel with an axial direction of the track bushing 1 within a space defined by the outer circumferential surface of the guide tube and the inner circumferential surface of the track bushing, thereby performing laminar flow cooling.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The invention relates to a track bushing for use in construction machines such as bulldozers, and a method and apparatus for producing the same. More particularly, the invention relates to a track bushing excellent in wear resistance and impact fatigue resistance, and a method and apparatus for producing such a track bushing at low cost, by use of a simpler means. BACKGROUND ART [0002] A known crawler belt 51 for use in a construction machine or the like comprises assemblage of parts such as shown in FIG. 23. Among them, a track bushing 52 is required to have wear-resistance at its inner and outer circumferential surfaces as well as high strength and toughness as a bushing, because it engages sprocket teeth for transmitting rotational movement from final reduction gears and functions to rotate the crawler belt 51. In a high speed running condition, there have been used pre-lubricated crawler belts containing a lubricant in a gap between a track pin 53 and the ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0018] A first aspect of the invention resides in that the surface layers of flat sealing portions at both end faces of a track bushing are respectively quench-hardened to a depth no less than one-half the wall thickness of the bushing from the outer circumferential surface, by use of partition jigs used for separating an inner circumferential cooling medium from an outer circumferential cooling medium such that when cooling the inner circumferential surface of the track bushing, the cooling of the inner circumferential surface is speeded down in the neighborhood of both end faces of the bushing and both end faces are effectively heated by additional induction heating from the outer circumferential surface. In addition, another partition jig having the same principle is interposed between two track bushings, whereby pre-lubricated track bushings requiring end face quench-hardened cases can be quenched and, in consequence, considerably improved productivity can be achieved.

Problems solved by technology

The carburization method ① produces a track bushing having good functionality as a pre-lubricated bushing because the end faces of the bushing are uniformly carburization hardened, but presents the problem that it takes a long time to carburize because the carburization-hardened case needs to be deepened in order to increase the wear resistance of the outer circumferential cylindrical surface, and use of a large amount of carburization gas leads to increased cost.

In addition, where a large-sized track bushing having a great wall thickness is produced by the carburization method ①, the depth of the hardened case must be great in view of strength and wear resistance, which results in a decrease in yield and high cost.

Further, since carburization heating of the inner and outer circumferential surfaces takes a long time, a grain boundary oxidation layer or imperfectly quenched layer of several tens of μm is formed in the inner and outer circumferential surfaces so that fatigue strength and impact resistance properties are likely to degrade.

The induction hardening method ② has been improved over the carburization method ① in terms of cost, but disadvantageously requires two quenching processes, i.e., quenching from the inner and outer circumferential surfaces, so that it cannot be regarded as a satisfactory thermal treatment having improved productivity and cost performance.

Additionally, in this induction hardening method, irregularities and omissions in quenching of the end faces of the pre-lubricated track bushing are unavoidable and therefore there arises a problem in ensuring the wear resistance of the end face serving as a dust seal face for preventing penetration of earth and sand into the inner circumference section of the bushing.

The method ③, in which the outer circumferential surface is cooled after preceding cooling of the inner circumferential surface, has the advantage that a track bushing excellent in wear resistance can be produced at very low cost by one quenching operation, but presents the drawback that if spray cooling is employed for cooling the inner circumferential surface of a cylindrical tube of small inside diameter, satisfactory cooling performance and uniformity cannot be ensured, because a surface to be cooled is usually positioned at a distance apart from the nozzle, the distance being about 10 times the bore diameter of the nozzle, in order to obtain an increased heat transfer coefficient and because the ability to discharge spray water is poor.

Quenching irregularities in the inner circumferential surface are unavoidable particularly where the method is applied to a track bushing having a very small inside diameter or where, with the intention of attaining increased productivity, the inner circumferential surfaces of two or more track bushings are quenched with their end faces overlapping each other.

As a result, a satisfactory improvement in productivity nor cost reduction cannot be achieved.

This is the cause of hindrance to the realization of satisfactory productivity and stable quality.

If heating is excessively done, it adversely affects the service life of the jigs for supporting the track bushing, because the jigs are also repeatedly cooled by the quenching medium after being heated.

Further, where the inner circumferential surface quenching is applied to two or more track bushings with their end faces overlapping each other as described earlier, a stable quench-hardened case cannot be formed in the flat sealing portions at both end faces of the track bushing because of the overlapping, so that this method cannot be applied to pre-lubricated bushings.

In addition, where spray cooling is adapted for cooling the inner circumferential surface, it is difficult to completely shut off a leakage of the cooling medium for the inner circumferential surface from the gap between each partition board and an end face of the bushing, the partition boards being in contact with both ends of the track bushing to separate water flows on the inner circumferential surface side and on the outer circumferential surface side from each other.

Therefore, the above-described irregularities and omissions cannot be completely prevented in the quenched portions of the end faces of the pre-lubricated track bushing, so that there arises a need for an inspection for checking the wear resistance of the end faces which serve as the dust seal faces for preventing the penetration of earth and sand into the bore of the track bushing.

Even if a quench-hardened case can be formed with high productivity by induction hardening, a large-scale tempering furnace must be involved in the low temperature tempering process carried out subsequently to the quenching operation, which disadvantageously results in a large scale production line.

In the case of induction tempering, tempering heating from the inner and outer circumferential surfaces becomes necessary, entailing unsatisfactory productivity.

Images