Spherical plain bearing

Abstract

A spherical bearing assembly includes a shaft extending through an opening of an inner ring, the inner ring having a spherically curved outer surface, a clamping sleeve on the shaft, the clamping sleeve extending through the opening of the inner ring, and an outer ring having an inner surface complementary to the outer surface of the inner ring. The inner ring is mounted in the outer ring with the outer surface of the inner ring slidably supported by the inner surface of the outer ring.

Claims

1. A conveyor belt system comprising: a frame; a first conveyor belt; a second conveyor belt; a bypass flap for diverting a material stream from the first conveyor belt onto the second conveyor belt and including a shaft; and a single spherical plain bearing configured to support the shaft of the bypass flap and including: an inner ring having a spherically curved outer surface and a frustoconical inner surface defining an opening; a clamping sleeve extending through the opening of the inner ring and having a cylindrical inner surface disposed about, the shaft and a frustoconical outer surface in contact with the frustoconical inner surface of the inner ring to permit axial adjustment between the spherical bearing and the shaft, and an outer ring attached to the frame and having a spherical inner surface complementary to the spherical outer surface of the inner ring, the inner ring being mounted in the outer ring with the outer surface of the inner ring slidably supported by the inner surface of the outer ring such that the spherical plain bearing is configured to compensate for radial and angular misalignment of the shaft.

2. The conveyor belt system according to claim 1, wherein the outer ring is configured in two-parts.

3. The conveyor belt system according to claim 1, further comprising a shaft nut threadably engaged with the clamping sleeve to axially secure the inner ring to the shaft and to the clamping sleeve.

4. The conveyor belt system according to claim 3 wherein: the shaft nut has at least one opening; and the conveyor belt system further comprises a securing plate having at least one bracket engageable with the at least one opening of the shaft nut to prevent loosening of the shaft nut and the inner ring.

5. The conveyor belt system according to claim 1, including a seal ring between the inner ring and the outer ring, the seal ring sealing a sliding space between the outer surface of the inner ring and the inner surface of the outer ring.

6. The conveyor belt system according to claim 1, including lubricant in a sliding space between the inner ring and the outer ring.

7. The conveyor belt system according to claim 6, wherein a lubricant supply assembly is provided on the outer ring that includes a radial bore extending in the outer ring via which lubricant is suppliable to the sliding space.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view through a spherical plain bearing according to a first exemplary embodiment of the disclosure.

(2) FIG. 2 is a perspective spatial view of the spherical plain bearing of FIG. 1.

(3) FIG. 3 is a detail view of the spherical plain bearing of to FIGS. 1 and 2.

(4) FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a bypass flap mounted on a shaft supported by the spherical plain bearing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(5) In the following, identical or functionally equivalent elements are designated by the same reference numbers.

(6) FIG. 1 schematically shows an axial section through a spherical plain bearing 1 that is can be used for supporting a bypass flap of a conveyor belt system, such as, for example, of a stone-crushing machine. The spherical plain bearing 1 includes an inner ring 2 and an outer ring 4. The inner ring 2 has an inner surface 6 and a spherical outer surface 8. The outer ring 4 includes an outer surface 10 and a spherical inner surface 12. The spherical outer surface 8 of the inner ring 2 is in turn configured to slide on the spherical inner surface 12 of the outer ring 4. A sliding space 14 is provided between the spherical surfaces 8, 12 of inner ring 2 or outer ring 4. In this sliding space 14 lubricant can be present in order to reduce the friction on the sliding surfaces 8, 12.

(7) Furthermore, FIG. 1 shows that the spherical plain bearing 1 is configured to support a shaft 16. Here the shaft 16 is in particular the shaft 16 of a bypass flap (44 in FIG. 4) of a conveyor belt system having a first belt 40 and a second belt 42, such as, for example, a stone-crushing machine (also not shown). Furthermore, it can be seen from FIG. 1 that the outer ring 4 includes bores 17 by which the spherical plain bearing 1 can be attached to the machine housing, in particular a machine frame of the conveyor belt system.

(8) In order to attach the inner ring 2 to the shaft 16, the spherical plain bearing 1 also includes a clamping sleeve 18. The clamping sleeve 18 is disposed between inner ring 2 and shaft 16, and has a frustoconical shape having a cylindrical inner surface 20 and an inclined outer surface 22.

(9) The inclined outer surface 22 is in contact with the inner surface 6 of the inner ring 2. In order to achieve a particularly good contact between clamping sleeve 18 and inner ring 2, the inner surface 6 of the inner ring 2 is also configured frustoconical and adapted to the inclination of the outer surface 22 of the clamping sleeve 18. With this clamping sleeve 18, an easy axial positioning of the spherical plain bearing 1 can be achieved with respect to the housing and the shaft 16.

(10) However, the spherical outer surface 8 of the inner ring 2 and the spherical inner surface 12 of the outer ring 4 allow for compensation of a radial offset or of a misalignment of the shaft 16. An axial and radial misalignment of the shaft, which arise due to the large manufacturing tolerances of the machine housing, can thus be compensated for without having to carry out a complex adjustment.

(11) Furthermore, it is shown in FIG. 1 that the inner ring is additionally secured on the shaft 16 by a shaft nut 24 provided with an inner thread 23. Here the shaft nut serves in particular for fixing the clamping sleeve 18 on the shaft 16. For this purpose the shaft nut is connected to the clamping sleeve 18 via the thread 23. During the screwing-on of the shaft nut 24, the clamping sleeve 18 is thus drawn into its final position in the inner ring 2. The axial positioning of the clamping sleeve 18 can thereby be fixed. Furthermore it can be seen from FIG. 1 and in particular FIG. 2 that the shaft nut 24 can in turn be secured against loosening by a securing metal plate 25. For this purpose the securing metal plate 25 can include brackets 35 that engage in openings 36 on the shaft nut 24 in order to prevent the twisting and thus loosening of the shaft nut 24 and ultimately also of the clamping sleeve 18 and of the inner ring 2.

(12) The outer ring 4 is preferably two-part and includes a seal 26, in the form, for example, of an O-ring, in order to protect the sliding space 14 from contaminants between inner ring 2 and outer ring 4. In addition, seals 28-1, 28-2 can be provided laterally on both axial sides of the outer ring 4; the seals 28-1, 28-2 also protect the sliding space 14 between inner ring 2 and outer ring 4 from contaminants. In addition, the seals 26, 28-1, 28-2 can hold a lubricant present in the sliding space in the sliding space 14.

(13) In order to allow for a lubricant exchange or entry, a lubricant-supply point 30 including a lubricating nipple 32 can be provided on the outer ring, in particular on a part 4-1 of the outer ring, via which lubricant supply point 30 lubricant is introducible into the sliding space 14. The arrangement of the lubricant-supply point 30 and in particular of the lubricant nipple 32 on the outer ring is schematically depicted in FIG. 2 and in detail in FIG. 3. FIG. 2 shows a schematic perspective view of the spherical plain bearing 1 from FIG. 1, but without the shaft 16 and the clamping sleeve 18.

(14) FIG. 3 is a detail of an axial sectional view along the line of FIG. 2 through the lubricant supply point 30. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the lubricant inlet 30 extends from the lubricating nipple 32, via a bore 34 through the outer ring part 4-1, into the sliding space 14 between the inner ring 2 and the outer ring 4. It is possible to introduce lubricant via this lubricant inlet 30 into the bearing or discharge lubricant from the bearing. Other embodiments are of course possible.

(15) Overall, with the disclosed spherical plain bearing assembly a shaft of a bypass flap of a stone-crusher can be supported such that the bypass flap can be simply and quickly be attached and adjusted without a complex adjusting and attaching being required. The clamping sleeve allows the bearing to be axially aligned on the shaft in order to thus compensate for axial tolerances. However, the shape of the spherical plain bearing can compensate for radial and angular deviations, which also compensates for the misalignment of the shaft due to the manufacturing tolerances to be expected. The outer ring is directly screwable onto the machine so that attachment is also simplified, wherein during the attaching of the outer ring on the machine no special precautions need to be taken. Due to the radial division of the outer ring the bearing can be preloaded, in particular by the use of a shaft nut, so that no clearance arises in the bearing and vibrations can be accommodated without wear.

(16) Representative, non-limiting examples of the present invention were described above in detail with reference to the attached drawings. This detailed description is merely intended to teach a person of skill in the art further details for practicing preferred aspects of the present teachings and is not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Furthermore, each of the additional features and teachings disclosed above may be utilized separately or in conjunction with other features and teachings to provide improved spherical plain bearings.

(17) Moreover, combinations of features and steps disclosed in the above detailed description may not be necessary to practice the invention in the broadest sense, and are instead taught merely to particularly describe representative examples of the invention. Furthermore, various features of the above-described representative examples, as well as the various independent and dependent claims below, may be combined in ways that are not specifically and explicitly enumerated in order to provide additional useful embodiments of the present teachings.

(18) All features disclosed in the description and/or the claims are intended to be disclosed separately and independently from each other for the purpose of original written disclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed subject matter, independent of the compositions of the features in the embodiments and/or the claims. In addition, all value ranges or indications of groups of entities are intended to disclose every possible intermediate value or intermediate entity for the purpose of original written disclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimed subject matter.