Floating Bearing Shell Balancer Shaft Design

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing balancer shafts for internal combustion engines face challenges in reducing weight while ensuring secure accommodation of radial bearings, often requiring costly and time-consuming fasteners and material accumulation at bearing points.

Innovation Solution

A balancer shaft design where the bearing shell is loosely positioned on the base body, allowing for weight reduction and elimination of fasteners, with a radial bearing securely accommodated by positioning the bearing shell in a clearance, and featuring a bearing seat with a circumferential angle of 180° or more, enabling stress-free arrangement and improved lubrication.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Weight of moving object

If a bearing shell is loosely positioned on the base body without fasteners, then weight is reduced and manufacturing is simplified, but the bearing shell may not be securely accommodated

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveweight of balancer shaftVSAvoidsecure accommodation of bearing shell
Core Design Contradiction:
Weight of moving objectVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The radial bearing serves as an intermediary element that mediates between the bearing shell and the base body. The bearing shell is accommodated in a bearing seat formed by the radial bearing and the base body, allowing the bearing shell to be securely positioned without direct fastening to the base body. This resolves the contradiction by providing secure accommodation through the intermediary bearing structure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The bearing shell is designed to be self-accommodating within the bearing seat formed by the radial bearing and base body. The loose positioning allows the bearing shell to self-position and self-accommodate without requiring additional fasteners or complex mounting structures, achieving both weight reduction and secure accommodation.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

2Reliability

If fasteners are used to secure the bearing shell to the base body, then secure accommodation is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesecure accommodation of bearing shellVSAvoidmanufacturing complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The fastening function is extracted from the bearing shell mounting structure. Instead of using fasteners to secure the bearing shell to the base body, the design takes out the fastening requirement entirely by allowing the bearing shell to be accommodated loosely in the bearing seat formed by the radial bearing and base body, simplifying manufacturing.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The bearing shell mounting system is designed to be self-sufficient without requiring additional fastening components. The bearing shell self-accommodates in the bearing seat through the radial bearing structure, eliminating the need for separate fastening operations and reducing manufacturing complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Reliability

If material is accumulated at the bearing point to form a solid bearing point, then secure accommodation is achieved, but weight increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesecure accommodation of bearingVSAvoidweight of balancer shaft
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSWeight of moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The bearing point structure is segmented into distinct functional components: the radial bearing and the base body form the bearing seat, while the bearing shell is loosely positioned within this seat. This segmentation eliminates the need for material accumulation to create a solid bearing point, achieving secure accommodation through structural design rather than mass.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentEP2962012B1Balancing shaft
Publication Date: 2019.02.20 HERZOG INTERTEC GMBH
  • EP2962012B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP2962012B1 patent drawingFigure 3~4
  • EP2962012B1 patent drawingFigure 5a~7b

AI summary

The invention relates to a balancing shaft for the balancing of free mass forces and/or mass moments of a reciprocating-piston internal combustion engine, the balancing shaft having a main body (14) which has at least one imbalance weight section (16) and at least one bearing point (19), said at least one bearing point having a bearing seat (21) for the mounting of a radial bearing (23), wherein the bearing seat (21) has a raceway (27) which extends over only part of a circumference of the bearing point (19) and which comprises a recess (28), and the bearing point (19) comprises a bearing shell (31) with a support surface (32) which is positioned relative to the bearing seat (21), wherein the bearing shell (31) is arranged on the main body (14) in floating fashion relative to the bearing seat (21) by means of the radial bearing (23).