Rotary Bearing Driver Surfaces to Limit Relative Rotation Wear
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Solution Overview
Problem
Earth working machines, such as road milling machines, experience increased wear in their rotary bearing arrangements due to unwanted relative rotation during elevated radial loads, which can occur during operation when the working assembly is applied to the ground or when changing engagement depth.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a driver configuration with a driver surface facing in one circumferential direction and a driver counterpart configuration with a counterpart surface facing in the opposite direction, ensuring that these surfaces overlap in the reference state, allowing only limited relative rotation and maintaining synchronous movement without turning, thus reducing wear by ensuring positive engagement and uniform load distribution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of repair
If the bearing stem and bearing sleeve are designed to be axially removable for maintenance purposes, then the ease of repair is improved, but unwanted relative rotation occurs during elevated radial loads causing increased wear
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing configuration is segmented into two separable parts: a bearing stem connected to the working assembly and a bearing sleeve connected to the support structure. This segmentation allows the bearing configurations to be axially removable for maintenance while incorporating driver and driver counterpart configurations that prevent unwanted relative rotation during operation, thus resolving the contradiction between ease of repair and reliability.
2Reliability
If the driver surface and driver counterpart surface are positioned to overlap in the reference state, then unwanted relative rotation is minimized reducing wear, but the device complexity increases due to additional driver configurations
Solution Approach 1:
The driver configuration and driver counterpart configuration are merged into the existing bearing stem and bearing sleeve structures. The driver configuration is integrated into the bearing stem while the driver counterpart configuration is integrated into the bearing sleeve, allowing them to work together to prevent relative rotation without requiring entirely separate additional components, thus minimizing the increase in device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An earth working machine includes a support structure and a working assembly mounted on the support structure so as to be rotatable about a drive axis. An assembly-side bearing configuration is connected to the working assembly and a structure-side bearing configuration is connected to the support structure. The assembly-side bearing configuration includes a driver configuration having a driver surface facing in a first circumferential direction and the structure-side bearing configuration includes a driver counterpart configuration having a driver counterpart surface facing in a second circumferential direction opposite to the first, the movement spaces of the driver surface and of the driver counterpart surface about the drive axis overlapping one another.