BEARING CAGE SEGMENT INCLUDING A JOINT EDGE IN THE REGION OF A TO-BE-FORMED BRIDGE

Abstract

A sheet metal bearing cage segment includes first and second ring sections, bridges connecting the ring sections to form pockets for rolling elements and a circumferentially facing joint edge configured to be connected to another circumferentially facing joint edge. The joint edge is disposed such that it will be located in one of the bridges after the joint edge is connected to the another circumferentially facing joint edge.

Claims

1. A bearing cage segment comprising: a first sheet metal ring section, at least one second sheet metal ring section, a plurality of sheet metal bridges connecting the first ring section to the at least one second ring section, circumferentially adjacent pairs of the bridges forming pockets for receiving at least one rolling element, and a circumferentially facing joint edge configured to be connected to another circumferentially facing joint edge, wherein the joint edge is disposed such that it will be located in one of the bridges after the joint edge is connected to the another circumferentially facing joint edge.

2. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the joint edge is formed by laser cutting.

3. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the joint edge includes a chamfer on a radially outer side and/or on a radially inner side.

4. The bearing cage segment according to claim 3, wherein the chamfer is formed by rolling or milling.

5. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein 0.5 dbd, where b is a width of a partial bridge for forming the to-be-formed bridge and d is the width of the bridges measured in the circumferential direction.

6. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the pockets are punched.

7. A sheet metal cage including 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 a material-bonded connection

8. The sheet metal bearing cage according to claim 7, wherein the material-bonded connection is a weld.

9. The sheet metal bearing cage according to claim 8, wherein the weld is an electric resistance weld or a laser weld.

10. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sheet metal bridges include a first partial bridge at a first end of the bearing cage segment and a second partial bridge at a second end of the bearing cage segment and wherein the joint edge is located on the first partial bridge.

11. The bearing cage segment according to claim 1, wherein the bearing cage segment is configured as a needle-roller bearing cage segment.

12. A bearing cage segment comprising: a first sheet metal ring section, at least one second sheet metal ring section, at least one sheet metal central bridge connecting the first ring section to the at least one second ring section, a sheet metal first partial bridge at a first end of the bearing cage segment, and a sheet metal second partial bridge at a second end of the bearing cage segment, wherein the first partial bridge includes a circumferentially facing first joint edge and the second partial bridge includes a circumferentially facing second joint edge, and wherein the first joint edge is configured to be connected to the second joint edge or to a joint edge of a partial bridge of another bearing cage segment.

13. A sheet metal bearing cage comprising the bearing cage segment of claim 12 with the first joint edge materially bonded to the second joint edge.

14. A sheet metal bearing cage comprising the bearing cage segment and the another bearing cage segment according to claim 12 with the first joint edge of the bearing cage segment materially bonded to the joint edge of the another bearing cage segment.

15. The bearing cage segment according to claim 12, wherein the first partial bridge has a radial outer surface and a radial inner surface and including a radially inwardly sloped wall connecting the radial outer surface to the joint edge.

16. The bearing cage segment according to claim 12, wherein the first partial bridge has a radial outer surface and a radial inner surface and including a radially outwardly sloped wall connecting the radial inner surface to the joint edge.

17. The bearing cage segment according to claim 12, wherein the first partial bridge has a radial outer surface and a radial inner surface and including a radially inwardly sloped wall connecting the radial outer surface to the joint edge and a radially outwardly sloped wall connecting the radially inner surface to the joint edge.

18. The bearing cage segment according to claim 12, wherein the bearing cage segment is configured as a needle-roller bearing cage segment.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0022] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a connecting region in an exemplary embodiment of a bearing cage segment according to the present disclosure.

[0023] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of two mutually contacting joint-edge regions of a bearing cage segment of the present disclosure prior to welding.

[0024] FIG. 3 is a view corresponding to that of FIG. 2 after welding.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] In the following, identical or functionally equivalent elements are designated by the same reference numbers. The direction designations used in the followingaxial, radial, circumferentialalways refer to the finished bearing cage.

[0026] FIG. 1 shows an exemplary embodiment of at least one bearing cage segment 1 of a sheet metal cage in the joint region between a first bearing cage segment end 10 and a second bearing cage segment end 12. Here the sheet metal cage can be formed from a single bearing cage segment 1, so that the bearing cage-segment ends 10, 12, also referred to here in the following simply as ends 10, 12, are two circumferential ends of only one bearing cage segment 1. Alternatively the sheet metal cage can include a plurality of bearing cage segments, wherein the first end 10 is one end of a first bearing cage segment 1, and the second end 12 is one end of a second correspondingly designed bearing cage segment 1.

[0027] For the sake of simplicity it is assumed here in the following that two bearing cage segments 1, 1 abut against each other at their ends 10, 12. The case that the first end 10 and the second end 12 are formed by the same bearing cage segment 1 obviously arises in an analogous manner.

[0028] Each bearing cage segment 1, 1 includes a first ring section 2 and a second ring section 4, and a plurality of bridges 6 connecting the first ring section 2 and the second ring section 4 to each other. Instead of the single-row design of the bearing cage segment 1 depicted here, the bearing cage segment 1 can also be configured multi-row, and would then include a first, a second, and further ring sections that are each connected to each other by bridges.

[0029] A pocket 8 for receiving at least one rolling element is respectively formed between the bridges 6. In the example shown the sheet metal cage is a needle-roller-bearing cage, and the pockets 8 are each configured for receiving a needle-shaped rolling element.

[0030] Each bearing cage segment 1, 1 includes on its first ends 10, 12 a joint edge 14, 16 directed in the circumferential direction, which joint edge 14, 16 is configured to be connected to the respective other joint edge 16, 14 that is formed here in an analogous manner on the second end 12.

[0031] The joint edges 14, 16 are preferably connected to each other via a connection, in particular a material-bonded connection, here a weld connection. Here a laser welding or an electrical resistance welding is suitable in particular for producing the connection.

[0032] As can be seen from the perspective representation of FIG. 1, the joint edge 14 is disposed in the region of a bridge 18 to be formed by this connection, here also referred to as welding bridge 18. Accordingly a first partial bridge 20 is formed by the first end 10, and a corresponding second partial bridge 22 is formed by the second end 12, wherein due to the connection of the joint edges 14, 16 these partial bridges 20, 22 form the to-be-formed bridge 18 or are assembled into the to-be-formed bridge 18.

[0033] Since the joint edge is formed on the partial bridge 20, 22, a particularly large contact or connecting surface can be achieved, and as a result a particularly stable and reliable connection can be achieved.

[0034] The partial bridges 20, 22 each preferably have a width b, measured in the circumferential direction, for which the following applies: 0.5 dbd wherein d is the width of the normal bridges 6.

[0035] The joint edges 14, 16 are formed by laser cutting. In this way the joint edges 14, 16 can be shaped so precisely that a post-processing for suitability as a welding surface is no longer required. Here the surface is directly cleaned by the laser cutting process.

[0036] The pockets 8 can all be formed by a punching.

[0037] As can be seen from FIG. 1, guide surfaces 24 of the pockets 8, which guide surfaces 24 are for guiding the rolling elements, can be formed on the bridges 6, also on the partial bridges 20, 22, and on the ring sections 2, 4. These guide surfaces 24 can be formed, for example, by the punching of the pockets 8.

[0038] FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional representation in the region of the connection of the joint edges 14, 16, wherein a state is shown wherein the joint edges 14, 16 contact, but are not yet welded.

[0039] As can be seen from FIG. 2, the joint edges 14, 16 also include a first chamfer 26 on the radially outer side, and a second chamfer 28 on the radially inner side. The chamfers 26, 28 serve to receive a radial or axial material accumulation, for example, an upper bead, as could arise due to the welding process. In FIG. 3 the state is shown after the welding. The weld seam 30 formed by the welding can be seen here. Due to the chamfers 26, 28 no projections are formed.

[0040] The chamfers 26, 28 are preferably produced by a reshaping, for example, rolling or milling. The laser cutting and the reshaping preferably occur with the aid of one and the same machine so that in particular the bearing cage segment 1 need not be transported to a further tool to form the chamfers 26, 28.

[0041] In summary a bearing cage segment is provided that includes a joint edge that is configured to be connected to another joint edge. Here the joint edge is disposed in the region of a bridge to be formed by the connection, so that a particularly large connecting surface is formed. The bearing cage segment is therefore particularly suitable for producing a reliable connection for forming a bearing cage, which is subjected in particular to high loads. The joint edge is laser-cut and is directly suitable for a weld connection.

[0042] 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.

[0043] 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.

[0044] 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

[0045] 1, 1 Bearing cage segment [0046] 2 First ring section [0047] 4 Second ring section [0048] 6 Bridges [0049] 8 Pockets [0050] 10 First bearing cage segment end [0051] 12 Second bearing cage segment end [0052] 14, 16 Joint edges [0053] 18 To-be-formed bridge [0054] 20, 22 Partial bridge [0055] 24 Guide surfaces [0056] 26 First chamfer [0057] 28 Second chamfer [0058] 30 Weld seam