Cage and Roller Assembly Lubrication Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
In planetary gearing mechanisms, lubricating oil supplied from the inner peripheral side of the cage and roller assembly often fails to reach the outer peripheral side, leading to inadequate lubrication and potential wear and friction issues.
Innovation Solution
The cage and roller assembly incorporates a design with a pair of annular portions and cage bars, featuring guide surfaces and clearances that allow lubricating oil to be effectively guided from the inner peripheral side to the outer peripheral side, ensuring proper lubrication and reducing friction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If clearances are made larger between cage bars and rollers, then lubricating oil flow to the outer peripheral side is improved, but radial play and positioning precision deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
Rather than increasing the overall radial clearance uniformly, the invention segments the cage into multiple bars, creating distributed clearances. This allows oil flow paths to be established through localized gaps without compromising the overall radial positioning precision of the roller assembly
Solution Approach 2:
The cage bar design allows for dynamic adjustment of clearances during operation. The clearances are sufficient to permit lubricant passage and accommodate operational variations, while the cage structure maintains stable radial positioning through its geometric configuration and connection to the rollers
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design enhances the rotation performance of the cage and roller assembly by ensuring consistent lubrication, reducing frictional resistance and wear, and maintaining high torque efficiency in planetary gearing mechanisms.
Implementation Method 1
Clearances formed between the cage bars and the rollers housed in the pockets are larger in axial center portions of the cage bars between axial ends of the cage bars than at the axial ends of the cage bars. This design facilitates lubricating oil supplied from the inner peripheral side of the cage and roller assembly to be supplied to the outer peripheral side
Implementation Method 2
The rollers are brought into rolling contact with a raceway surface provided on an outer periphery of a shaft
Implementation Method 3
The pair of annular portions has guide surfaces that can be brought into contact with an inner peripheral surface of an outer member that is brought into rolling contact with the rollers
Data Source
AI summary
A cage and roller assembly includes rollers to be brought into rolling contact with a raceway surface provided on the outer periphery of a shaft, and an annular cage that retains the rollers. Lubricating oil is supplied through an oil supply hole that is provided inside the shaft and is open at an axial center region of the raceway surface. The cage includes annular portions having guide surfaces that are brought into contact with an inner peripheral surface of an outer member that is brought into rolling contact with the rollers, and cage bars that couple the annular portions together and are arranged with intervals in a circumferential direction. Clearances formed between the cage bars and the rollers housed in the pockets are larger in axial center portions of the cage bars between axial ends of the cage bars than at the axial ends of the cage bars.