Face-Mounted Angular Contact Ball Bearing for High Load Stiffness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing angular contact ball bearings struggle to effectively support both axial and radial loads while maintaining sufficient stiffness and load capacity.
Innovation Solution
A face-mounted angular contact ball bearing assembly with a unique configuration of inner and outer rings, and two sets of balls, each set forming a contact angle greater than 35 degrees, and a bearing fill percentage of greater than 75%, enhancing load support and stiffness.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If the bearing fill percentage is increased to improve load capacity, then the load support capability is improved, but the stiffness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The ball elements are segmented into two sets with different fill percentages. The first set operates at a first fill percentage that optimizes axial load support, while the second set operates at a second fill percentage that optimizes radial load support. This segmentation prevents the stiffness deterioration that would result from uniformly increasing the fill percentage across all elements.
Solution Approach 2:
Different fill percentages are applied locally to different ball elements based on their functional requirements. The first set of balls has a fill percentage optimized for axial loading conditions, while the second set has a fill percentage optimized for radial loading conditions, allowing each subset to operate in its optimal performance regime.
2Device complexity
If a single contact angle is used for all ball elements, then the bearing structure is simple, but the ability to handle combined axial and radial loads deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The bearing assembly is segmented into multiple subsets of ball elements, where each subset has distinct contact angles tailored to specific load directions. This segmentation enables the bearing to effectively handle combined axial and radial loads by distributing load paths across differently angled ball elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The bearing assembly achieves multi-functionality by incorporating ball elements with different contact angles, allowing a single bearing structure to simultaneously optimize for both axial and radial load handling. This multi-functional design enables the bearing to adapt to complex loading conditions that would be impossible to handle with a single contact angle configuration.
Data Source
AI summary
A face-mounted angular contact ball bearing includes an inner ring with an axial end connectable with a first member and an outer surface including axially spaced first and second inner raceways. An outer ring is disposed about the inner ring and has an axial end connectable with a second member and an inner surface including first and second outer raceways disposed axially between and facing the inner raceways. A first set of balls is disposed between the first inner and outer raceways and a second set of balls is disposed between the second inner and outer raceways. The inner and outer rings and the two sets of balls are formed such that the contact angles of each set of balls is greater than thirty-five degrees, preferably between forty and sixty degrees. Also, the number of the balls of each ball set provides a bearing fill percentage greater than seventy-five percent.