Bearing cage segment including welding-material bodies or locations

Abstract

A sheet metal bearing cage segment includes a first ring section, at least one second ring section, and a plurality of bridges connecting the first and second ring sections to each other and defining a plurality of pockets between the bridges. The bearing cage segment includes first and second circumferentially directed joint edges, the first joint edge is configured to connect to the second joint edge of the bearing cage segment or to a second joint edge of another sheet metal bearing cage segment, and the first joint edge includes at least one body of welding material projecting from the joint edge. The body of welding material may be pressed against the second joint edge while leaving a gap between the joint edges, and the welding material can be liquified by a resistance welding process to connect the joint edges.

Claims

1. A bearing cage segment of a sheet metal cage, the bearing cage segment comprising: a first sheet metal ring section, at least one second sheet metal ring section, and a plurality of sheet metal bridges connecting the first ring section and the at least one second ring section to each other, a pocket between adjacent pairs of the plurality of bridges configured to receive at least one rolling element, wherein the bearing cage segment includes a first joint edge directed in a first circumferential direction and a second joint edge directed in a second circumferential direction, the first joint edge being configured to connect to the second joint edge of the bearing cage segment or to a second joint edge of another sheet metal bearing cage segment, and wherein the first joint edge includes at least one body of welding material projecting from the joint edge and pressed against the second joint edge prior to welding.

2. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the bearing cage segment is curved such that the at least one body of welding material contacts the second joint edge while leaving a circumferential gap between the first joint edge and the second joint edge.

3. The bearing cage segment according to claim 2, wherein the at least one body of welding material comprises the sheet metal.

4. A method for manufacturing a sheet metal cage comprising: providing the sheet metal cage according to claim 3; and performing an electrical resistance welding operation to liquify the at least one body of welding material while pressing the first joint edge and second joint edge together.

5. The bearing cage segment according to claim 2, wherein the second joint edge includes a recess configured to receive a portion of the at least one body of welding material such that the gap between the first joint edge and the second joint edge is present when the at least one body is pressed against a bottom of the recess.

6. A method for manufacturing a sheet metal cage comprising: providing the sheet metal cage according to claim 2; and performing an electrical resistance welding operation to liquify the at least one body of welding material while pressing the first joint edge and second joint edge together.

7. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein a shape and/or an amount and/or a material of the body of welding material is adapted to the welding process to be expected.

8. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein a shape and/or an amount and/or a material of the welding material is adapted to a current flow to be expected of an electrical resistance welding process.

9. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the body of welding material comprises a same material as the bearing cage segment.

10. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the bearing cage and the body of welding material are integrally formed.

11. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the body of welding material and the bearing cage segment are formed from different materials.

12. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein at least one joint edge is disposed in the region of a to-be-formed bridge.

13. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the at least one body of welding material is configured to align the first joint edge radially, axially, and/or circumferentially relative to the second joint edge.

14. A sheet metal cage comprising at least one bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the at least one bearing cage segment are connected at their joint edges via electrical resistance welding.

15. A method for manufacturing a sheet metal cage comprising: providing a first and a second sheet metal cage segment according to claim 1; placing the at least one body of welding material of the first joint edge of the first cage segment against the second joint edge of the second cage segment; and performing an electrical resistance welding operation to liquify the at least one body of welding material while pressing the first joint edge and second joint edge together.

16. A bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the at least one body of welding material projecting from the first joint edge includes at least two axially spaced bodies of welding material each projecting from the first joint edge.

17. A bearing cage segment according to claim 16, wherein a gap is defined between the at least two axially spaced bodies of welding material prior to welding, the gap being at least partially filled with the liquified welding material bodies during welding.

18. A bearing cage segment of a sheet metal cage, the bearing cage segment comprising: a first sheet metal ring section, at least one second sheet metal ring section, and a plurality of sheet metal bridges connecting the first ring section and the at least one second ring section to each other, a pocket between adjacent pairs of the plurality of bridges configured to receive at least one rolling element, wherein the bearing cage segment includes a first joint edge directed in a first circumferential direction and a second joint edge directed in a second circumferential direction, the first joint edge being configured to connect to the second joint edge of the bearing cage segment or to a second joint edge of another sheet metal bearing cage segment, wherein the first joint edge includes at least one body of welding material projecting from the joint edge, wherein the bearing cage segment is curved such that the at least one body of welding material contacts the second joint edge while leaving a circumferential gap between the first joint edge and the second joint edge and the second joint edge includes a recess configured to receive a portion of the at least one body of welding material such that the gap between the first joint edge and the second joint edge is present when the at least one body is pressed against a bottom of the recess.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective detail view of a preferred exemplary embodiment of a sheet metal cage.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(2) In the following, identical or functionally equivalent elements are designated by the same reference numbers. The direction designations used in the following—axial, radial, circumferential—always refer to the finished bearing cage.

(3) FIG. 1 shows a detail view of a first exemplary embodiment of a sheet metal cage including a first bearing cage segment 2 and a second bearing cage segment 4, which are respectively disposed abutting against each other at a joint edge 6, 8. Here instead of the first bearing cage segment 2 and the second bearing cage segment 4, also only a single bearing cage segment 2 can be provided that includes the joint edge 6 at a first end and the joint edge 8 at a second end.

(4) For the sake of simplicity it is assumed here in the following that the metal cage 1 includes at least two bearing cage segments 2, 4 that abut against each other.

(5) Each bearing cage segment 2, 4 includes a first ring section 10 and a second ring section 12, and a plurality of bridges 14 connecting the first ring section 10 and the second ring section 12 to each other. Of course, instead of the bearing cage 1 depicted single-row here, the bearing cage 1 can be configured multi-row, and include more than two ring sections that are each connected to one another via bridges.

(6) A pocket 16 for receiving at least one rolling element (not depicted) is respectively formed between the bridges 14. In the example shown the sheet metal cage is a needle-bearing cage, and the pockets 16 are each configured for receiving a needle-shaped rolling element.

(7) FIG. 1 furthermore shows the bearing cage segments 2, 4 in their not-connected state, that is, before they are connected to each other at their respective joint edges 6, 8 via a weld connection. Here electrical resistance welding is suitable in particular for producing the connection.

(8) During resistance welding the components to be connected, in this case the bearing cage segments 2, 4, are acted on by a certain current flow such that they fuse together in the region of their joint edges. Relatively high energy is needed for this purpose, and the dimensional stability of the bearing ring 1 is reduced since the material of the joint edges itself is liquefied and they are pressed against each other by pressure.

(9) In order to achieve a defined connection during resistance welding, at least one, preferably a plurality of, welding material locations 20, 22, 24, are provided on at least one of the joint edges 6, 8 of the bearing cage segments 2, 4; the welding material locations 20, 22, 24 are liquefied due to the heat developed during application of a current to the bearing cage segments 2; 4, and thus a connection between the bearing cage segments 2,4 can occur.

(10) It is to be mentioned here in particular that the amount and/or selection of the welding material or the shape of the welding material locations 20, 22, 24 are adapted such that only the welding material, but not the joint edges 6, 8, are liquefied. A very good dimensional stability can thereby be achieved during welding, and it can simultaneously be achieved that the resistance welding process automatically stops as soon as the welding material locations are depleted, since the current flow is distributed over the entire joint edge and no longer concentrated at the welding material locations.

(11) A very precise, rapid, simple, and error-forgiving welding of the bearing cage segments 2, 4 can thereby be achieved.

(12) In principle the welding material locations or the joint edges can be provided at any location in the bearing cage. However, where the joint edges are provided in the region of the to-be-formed bridge, as depicted in FIG. 1, the difference between current demand for welding the sacrificial locations 20, 22, 24 and the joint edges 6, 8 is so large that a random liquefaction of the joint edges does not also occur. The dimensional stability of the bearing cage can thereby be increased, and an automatic ending of the welding process can thereby be achieved.

(13) In order to achieve an exact orientation of the joint edges 6, 8 or of the bearing cage segments 2, 4 with respect to each other, the welding material locations 20, 22, 24 can furthermore be configured as alignment elements that are preferably configured complementary to each other. Due to this design a moving or displacing of the bearing cage segments is restricted, so that it is ensured that the orientation of the bearing cage segments 2, 4 is maintained even during the producing of the weld connection.

(14) As furthermore depicted in FIG. 1, the joint edges 6, 8 are disposed in the region of a bridge 26 to be formed by this connection. Accordingly the first bearing cage segment 2 includes a first “partial bridge” 28 and the second bearing cage segment 4 includes a second “partial bridge” 30, wherein due to the connection of the corresponding joint edges 6, 8 these partial bridges 28, 30 form the to-be-formed bridge 26. Since the joint edges 6, 8 are formed in the region of the bridge 26, a particularly large contact or connecting surface can be achieved, and subsequently a particularly stable and reliable connection can be achieved. Here the partial bridges 28, 30 respectively have a width b, measured in the circumferential direction, for which the following applies: 0.5 d≤b≤d, wherein d is the width of the “normal” bridges 14. In addition, it can thereby be reliably achieved that the welding process automatically ends, since the resistance of the “long” joint edge is significantly lower than that of the “short” welding material locations, so that the heat energy provided by the constant welding current no longer suffices to liquefy the joint edges.

(15) The joint edges 6, 8 and/or the welding material locations are preferably formed by laser cutting. In this way the joint edges 6, 8 and/or the welding material locations can be so precisely shaped that a post-processing for a suitability as a welding surface is no longer required, or the provided resistance is uniquely defined. In addition, the surface of the joint edges 6, 8 is directly cleaned by the laser cutting process. However, the pockets 16 can also be formed by a punching.

(16) As can furthermore be seen from FIG. 1, guide surfaces 32 for guiding the rolling elements can also be formed on the bridges 14, also on the welding bridge 26, and on the ring sections 2, 4. These guide surfaces 32 can be formed, for example, during the punching of the pockets 16.

(17) Overall by providing special welding material locations, no additional mechanical control is required in order to terminate the resistance welding at the correct time. This is effected automatically when the small welding material locations are melted and the contacting cross-section is extended with welding material from the small locations to the entire region of the joint edge. Since this effect is particularly large with joint edges that extend over the entire width of the cage, that is, are disposed in the region of the bridge, as mentioned above the arrangement on the bridge is particularly preferred. In addition, the dimensional stability of the cage can be significantly improved overall since the joint edges can be precisely manufactured, and only the sacrificial locations are subjected to the actual welding process. In addition, the size of the weld seam can be precisely calculated by the amount of the welding material present.

(18) 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 bearing cage segments and methods for welding bearing cage segments.

(19) 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.

(20) 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.

REFERENCE NUMBER LIST

(21) 1 Sheet metal cage 2 First bearing cage segment 4 Second bearing cage segment 6, 8 Joint edges 10 First ring section 12 Second ring section 14 Bridge 16 Pockets 22, 24 Seal material location 26 To-be-formed bridge 28, 30 Partial bridge 32 Guide surface