Guide roller

Abstract

A guide roller configured to guide a wire to or from a work roller in a wire rolling line includes a rolling-element bearing having a rotatable outer ring, a fixed inner ring, and rolling elements between the outer ring and the inner ring. The outer ring has a profile configured to guide the wire on a radially outer surface thereof. The guide roller is configured as a double row preloaded rolling-element bearing and is installable as a finished component on a fixed shaft of the wire rolling line without adjusting the preload.

Claims

1. A guide roller configured to guide a wire to or from a work roller in a wire rolling line, the guide roller comprising: a rolling-element bearing having an outer ring, an inner ring, and a plurality of rolling elements between the outer ring and the inner ring, the outer ring being rotatable and the inner ring being fixed, the outer ring having a radially outer surface, a profile of the radially outer surface defines a concave recess therein which, when viewed in cross-section, has one of a V-shape and a U-Shape, the concave recess being configured to guide the wire thereon, wherein the plurality of rolling elements comprises a first row of rolling elements and a second row of rolling elements, wherein the outer ring includes a first raceway and a second raceway, the second raceway being axially spaced from the first raceway, and wherein the inner ring includes a third raceway and a fourth raceway, the fourth raceway being axially spaced from the third raceway, wherein the inner ring and the outer ring are each formed by a single, unitary, one-piece component such that relative positions of the first raceway and the second raceway to the third raceway and the fourth raceway are predetermined upon manufacture thereof to facilitate the guide roller having a predetermined preload without requiring subsequent adjustment of the inner ring and/or the outer ring after assembly of the guide roller and thus allowing the guide roller to be installed as a finished component.

2. The guide roller according to claim 1, wherein the first raceway and the third raceway enclose the first row of rolling elements in a first circumferential angular range of less than ninety (90) degrees and the second raceway and the fourth raceway enclose the second row of rolling elements in a second circumferential angular range less than ninety (90) degrees and wherein an axially central region of the inner ring between the first row of rolling elements and the second row of rolling elements is set radially inward from the third raceway and the fourth raceway and includes a radial opening for receiving lubricating grease.

3. The guide roller according to claim 1, wherein the rolling-element bearing is configured in a back-to-back arrangement, and wherein the first raceway and the first row of rolling elements and the third raceway form a first angular contact ball bearing and the second raceway and the second row of rolling elements and the fourth raceway form a second angular contact ball bearing, the first and second angular contact ball bearings are configured as two-point bearings.

4. The guide roller according to claim 1, wherein a ratio of a mass moment of inertia of the outer ring to an outer diameter of the outer ring is greater than zero point zero zero one (0.001 kg*m) kilogram meters.

5. The guide roller according to claim 1, wherein a ratio of a mass moment of inertia of the outer ring to an outer diameter of the outer ring is greater than zero point zero zero one five (0.0015 kg*m) kilogram meters.

6. The guide roller according to claim 3, wherein a first cone formed by a first bearing pressure line of the first angular contact ball bearing and a second cone formed by a second bearing pressure line of the second angular contact ball bearing intersect each other inside the outer ring.

7. The guide roller according to claim 6, wherein the first cone and the second cone intersect radially along a circle lying radially inside a radially innermost portion of the profile of the outer ring.

8. The guide roller according to claim 6, wherein the first bearing pressure line and the second bearing pressure line, when viewed in cross-section, define an angle between fifty (50) degrees and seventy (70) degrees with respect to an axis of rotation of the guide roller.

9. The guide roller according to claim 1, wherein the outer ring has first and second axial ends and defines first and second radial grooves, the first radial groove is located between the first axial end and the first raceway and the second radial groove is located between the second axial end and the second raceway, the first and second radial grooves each being configured to receive a seal therein such that the guide roller can be sealed.

10. The guide roller according to claim 1, wherein the inner ring defines an axially central region between the first row of rolling elements and the second row of rolling element, a portion of the inner ring which is located along the axially central region and which is located radially inward from the third raceway and the fourth raceway defines a radial opening for receiving lubricating grease.

11. A work roller in a wire rolling line including a guide roller according to claim 1.

12. A method comprising: providing a guide roller according to claim 1; and installing the guide roller as a finished component on the fixed shaft of the wire rolling line without adjusting the preload.

13. A method comprising: providing a guide roller according to claim 4; and installing the guide roller as a finished component on the fixed shaft of the wire rolling line without adjusting the preload.

14. A method comprising: providing a guide roller according to claim 10; and installing the guide roller as a finished component on the fixed shaft of the wire rolling line without adjusting the preload.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) The FIGURE is a side elevational view of a portion of a radial section of a guide roller according to the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(2) In the FIGURE a guide roller is shown, which is configured as a finished structural unit. This means that the guide rollers are only comprised of a single component and need not first be assembled from various loose components. All components of the finished structural unit are already in their final position and arrangement and installed and disposed in the positions relative to the other components.

(3) The guide roller is composed of the one-part outer ring 2, which includes an outer casing 5 that includes on its radially outer lying casing surface an integrally formed profiling 6 for a to-be-guided wire. For this purpose the profiling is preferably configured V-shaped or U-shaped. The profiling 6 is axially symmetrically configured such that a wire is guided centrally with respect to the outer ring.

(4) The inner ring 3 is also configured one-part and includes two raceways 7. The outer ring 2 includes two corresponding raceways 13. Rolling elements 4 configured as balls are disposed between the raceways 7 and 13. The guide roller 1 is configured as a double row angular contact ball bearing, and the pressure lines 10 of the two rows of the angular contact ball bearing form an angle with the axis of rotation a of the outer ring 2. The exemplary embodiment thereby respectively has an angle of 60 degrees. The double row angular contact ball bearing is itself preloaded, so that the two rolling element rows have a set preload pressure between their raceways 7, 13. This preload is applied during the assembly of the guide roller 1 and is determined from the ball diameter and the spacing of the raceways with respect to each other. The individual pressure lines 10 of each ball of a row of the angular contact ball bearing together form a cone. The two cones of the two rows of rolling elements intersect within the outer ring 2 on an imaginary circle 14. The two angular contact ball bearings of the guide roller are configured as two-point bearings and in a back-to-back arrangement with respect to each other. The central region 8 of the inner ring 3 has a smaller outer diameter than the raceways 7 of the inner ring 3. A receiving space for lubricating grease is thereby formed. A radial opening 9 connects an inner circumferential surface of the inner ring 3 to the receiving space and allows the angular contact ball bearing to be filled with lubricating grease. In the inner circumferential surface of the outer ring 2 two grooves 11 are incorporated axially outside the two ball rows, which grooves 11 serve for the receiving of seal elements 12, which are connected to the outer ring such that they rotate together with the outer ring. The seal elements are configured as seal discs made of metal-plate material. In the region of their radially inner end sides they form a gap seal with the outer circumferential surface of the inner ring 3 opposite the end side. Overall, a sealed guide roller configured as a finished structural unit is depicted, which can be installed on a shaft of a wire rolling stand without assembly or disassembly steps. The installation effort of this roller is thus minimized, whereby stoppage times due to exchange of guide rollers can be reduced.

(5) 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 guide rollers.

(6) 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.

(7) 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

(8) 1 Guide roller

(9) 2 Outer ring

(10) 3 Inner ring

(11) 4 Rolling element

(12) 5 Outer casing

(13) 6 Profiling

(14) 7 Raceways

(15) 8 Central region

(16) 9 Radial opening

(17) 10 Pressure lines

(18) 11 Groove

(19) 12 Seal element

(20) 13 Raceways

(21) 14 Circle

(22) a Axis of rotation