GB1570849A

GB1570849A - Rolling bearing assemblies

Info

Publication number: GB1570849A
Application number: GB13921/78A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Motors Liquidation Co
Current assignee: Motors Liquidation Co
Priority date: 1977-04-22
Filing date: 1978-04-10
Publication date: 1980-07-09
Also published as: AU516484B2; JPS6229648B2; CA1086364A; DE2815140C2; AU3467678A; DE2815140A1; JPS53132641A

Description

(54) ROLLING BEARING ASSEMBLIES (71) We, GENERAL MOTORS COR PORATION, a Company incorporated under the laws of the State of Delaware, in the United States of America, of Grand Boulevard, in the City of Detroit, State of Michigan, in the United States of America (assignees of LOREN ELROY LURA and PHILIP BARNHART ZEIGLER) do hereby declare the invention for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention relates to rolling bearing assemblies.

The invention is particularly concerned with rolling bearing assemblies having a desired end play or preload.

It has been proposed in US Patent 3,794,393 (Hurd et al) to provide a doublerow roller bearing assembly having a twopiece outer race in which the end play or preload is controlled by a split snap ring of selected width to maintain a separable outer bearing race at a desired location in a bore of the second race piece.

Such use of a split snap ring to locate race member 62 makes automated assembly of the bearing assembly difficult, in particular since split snap rings vary in width and thus in spring rate from one bearing assembly to another. Such split ring retention arrangement also does not lend itself to bearing assemblies in which the end play or preload is adjusted by an inner race of two-piece construction.

The present invention is concerned with a rolling bearing assembly having improved means for providing a desired end play or preload.

By the present invention there is provided a rolling bearing assembly comprising a first race, a second race comprising a first piece having a fixed angular contact raceway and a second piece carried by the first piece and having a fixed angular contact raceway, circumferentially spaced rolling elements engaging a raceway of the first race and the fixed angular contact raceway of the first piece for transmitting a thrust load to the first race, circumferentially spaced rolling elements engaging a raceway of the first race and the fixed angular contact raceway of the second piece for transmitting an opposing thrust load to the first race, a plurality of hardened keeper ring parts which are accommodated in a circumferential groove in the first piece and engage an end face of the second piece, and an annular retainer ring having a portion which engages the keeper ring parts to retain the keeper ring parts in the groove and another portion which is permanently secured to the first piece, to provide an arrangement in which the width of the keeper ring parts determines the end play or preload in the bearing assembly, for producing a desired end play or preload.

Such a construction potentially lends itself to automated assembly, and allows one race piece to be accurately positioned on another race piece by a keeper means which engages the first race piece for substantially a full 360 , with the possibility of the means positioning the one race part with respect to the other race part including hardened and ground members engaging the one race part for increased durability and positioning accuracy.

The appended claims define the scope of the invention claimed. The invention and how it can be performed are hereinafter particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through a preferred embodiment of a wheel bearing assembly in accordance with the present invention; Figure 2 is a fragmentary section on the line 2-2 of Figure 1, in the direction of the arrows; and Figure 3 is an enlarged view of a portion of the wheel bearing assembly shown in Figure 1.

In Figure 1 of the drawing there is illustrated a rear wheel bearing assembly 10 usable for an independently suspended rear wheel of a front wheel drive automobile. To this end the rear wheel bearing assembly 10 incorporates a dead (not-rotatable) spindle 12 comprising an axle 14 and an integral circular mounting flange 16. The mounting flange 16 carries a plurality of stud-like bolts 18 for securing the assembly 10 to adjacent structure in the automobile.

The axle 14 includes, disposed successively between the flange 16 and the free end of the axle, a cylindrical seal land 20, an angular contact raceway 22, a frustoconical section 24, and a cylindrical portion 26 of lesser diameter. The cylindrical portion 26 has a square-section inboard groove 28 and a trapezoidal-section outboard groove 30 adjacent the free end of the axle 14.

The bearing assembly 10 further includes a hub 32 comprising an outer race 34 and an integral wheel mounting flange 36. The wheel mounting flange 36 is rectangularly shaped to provide access to the bolt holes in the circular mounting flange 16 (The section of the wheel mounting flange 36 shown in Figure 1 is along the diagonal of the rectangle through the bolt holes located at the corners of the rectangle).

The outer race 34 has a pair of axially spaced angular contact raceways 38 and 40 separated by a common shoulder defining a reduced-diameter bore 42 in the medial portion of the bearing.

A first complenent of bearing balls 44 circumferentially spaced by a separator rides on the inner and outer raceways 22 and 38. A second complement of bearing balls 46 rides on the outer raceway 40 and on an angular contact raceway 48 of a separable inner race 50 which is fitted on the cylindrical portion 26 of the axle 14.

The inner race 50 is so positioned on the cylindrical portion 26 as to produce a desired end play or preload in the bearing assembly by the use of selected-width keeper ring parts 54 disposed end to end in the slot-like groove 28. When the bearing is preloaded, the bearing balls 44 and 46 have pressure angles such that opposing thrust loads acting towards the medial plane 52 of the bearing are imposed on the outer race 34 via the raceways 38 and 40. Each of the keeper ring parts 54 is mountable in the groove 28 without requiring elastic deformation, and together the keeper ring parts engage the outboard face of the inner race 50 for substantially a full 360".

In the case of an inner bearing arrangement such as is shown in the drawing, the keeper ring parts 54 are preferably semicircular as shown, to minimize the number of parts.

The keeper ring parts 54 are hardened to a Rockwell Hardness between 55 and 60 on the C scale for durability, are ground for extreme dimensional accuracy in width, and are segregated in 0.0002 inch width classes for producing a desired end play or preload.

The groove 28 preferably undercuts the raceway by a small amount.

The keeper ring parts 54 are bottomed and maintained in the square-section groove 28 by a sheet metal retainer ring 56 which has a frustoconical inner surface 58 engaging a mating frustoconical outer surface 60 of each of the keeper ring parts 54. The retainer ring 56 has a cylindrical end portion 62 which is swaged or rolled at 64 as shown into the trapezoidal section groove 30 to securely fasten the retainer ring 56 to the axle 14.

The retainer ring 56 in this embodiment includes a flange 66 having an outer diameter greater than the diameter of the bore 42, to prevent disassembly of the bearing in the event of catastrophic failure of the internal bearing components.

The assembly 10 in this embodiment also includes a bearing seal 69 which is carried at the end of the hub 32 adjacent the circular mounting flange 16 and has a flexible sealing lip riding on the cylindrical land 20 of the axle 14. A grease cap 71 mounted in the bore at the other end of the hub 34 seals the other end of the bearing assembly 10.

A design value of axial end play or preload of the bearing assembly 10 is obtained by the axial positioning of the separable inner race 50 on the axle 14. To maintain the axial end play or preload, the inner race 50 is pressed on the cylindrical portion 26 of the axle 14 to the proper location to give the desired end play or preload, and thereupon positively retained in position.

For assembly of the bearing 10, the complements of bearing balls 44 and 46 and the hub 34 are subassembled with the spindle 12.

The separable inner race 50 is then pressed on the cylindrical portion 26 of the axle 14 to a convenient location, and the axial end play and the distance from the separable inner race back face 68 Figure 3) and the radial face 70 (Figure 3 of the square-section groove 28 from the inner race are measured.

On the basis of the measured values and the desired final end play of the assembly, the required width of keeper ring parts 54 to be inserted in the groove 28 determined. The separable inner race 50 may then be repositioned axially to its final desired location, and keeper ring parts 54 of proper selected width inserted in the groove 28, or the keeper ring parts may be forced into the groove 28 between the separable bearing inner race back face 68 and the groove end face 70 to obtain the final positioning for the desired end play or preload. Once the keeper ring parts 54 are bottomed in the groove 28, the retainer ring 56 is placed on the axle spindle with its frustoconically tapered inner surface 58 in contact with the frustoconically tapered outer surfaces 60 of the keepr ring member formed by the keeper ring parts 54.

The cylindrical portion 62 of the retainer ring is then swaged or rolled into the trapezoidalsection groove 30 to permanently lock the retainer ring 56 in place and contain the keeper ring parts 54 in the groove 28.

Any thrust force applied to the bearing assembly tending to move the separable inner race 50 towards the right as viewed in Figures 1 and 3, and thus tending to change the preset end play or preload is transmitted from the inner race 50 through the back face 68 to the keeper ring parts 54 and then into the axle 14 through the radial face 70 of the groove 28. The keeper ring parts 54 and spindle 12 are of a hardness adequate to resist permanent deformation, thus preventing movement of the separable inner race 50 and change of the preset end play or preload.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A rolling bearing assembly comprising a first race, a second race comprising a first piece having a fixed angular contact raceway and a second piece carried by the first piece and having a fixed angular contact raceway, circumferentially spaced rolling elements engaging a raceway of the first race and the fixed angular contact raceway of the first piece for transmitting a thrust load to the first race, circumferentially spaced rolling elements engaging a raceway of the first race and the fixed angular contact raceway of the second piece for transmitting an oppositing thrust load to the first race, a plurality of hardened keeper ring parts which are accommodated in a circumferential groove in the first piece and engage an end face of the second piece, and an annular retainer ring having a portion which engages the keeper ring parts to retain the keeper ring parts in the groove and another portion which is permanently secured to the first piece, to provide an arrangement in which the width of the keeper ring parts determines the end play or preload in the bearing assembly, for producing a desired end play or preload.

2. A rolling bearing assembly according to claim 1, in which the hardened keeper ring parts have frustoconical outer surfaces and are arranged end to end in the groove to form a hardened keeper ring which engages the end face of the second piece as aforesaid and has a frustoconical outer surface, and the annular retainer ring has a frustoconical inner surface engaging the frustoconical outer surface of the hardened keeper ring to retain the keeper ring parts in the groove as aforesaid.

3. A rolling bearing assembly according to claim 1 or 2, in which the annular retainerring is permanently secured to the first piece by deformation of a portion of the annular retainer ring into a second groove in the first piece.

4. A rolling bearing assembly according to claim 1, in the form of a double row rolling bearing comprising a one-piece outer race carrying a pair of angular contact outer raceways in fixed spatial relationship, the outer raceways each having a reduced diameter at their adjacent ends whereby the outer raceways are adapted to receive opposing thrust loads directed towards a medial plane of the bearing between the outer raceways, first and second complements of circumferentially spaced rolling elements engaging respective ones of the pair of outer raceways, an axle disposed in the outer race, the axle carrying a fixed inner raceway engaging the first complement of rolling elements for providing a thrust load acting on one of the pair of outer raceways in a direction towards the medial plane, the axle further carrying a separable inner race having an inner raceway engaging the second complement of rolling elements for providing an opposing thrust load acting on the other of the pair of outer raceways, the axle having a circumferential groove formed adjacent an end face of the separable inner race remote from the medial plane, a pair of hardened semicircular keeper ring parts disposed end to end in the groove and engaging the end face of the separable inner race, and keeper ring parts having outer frustoconical surfaces, and being of a selected width to produce a desired end play or preload, and an annular retainer ring having an inner frustoconical surface engaging the frustoconical surfaces of the keeper ring parts to retain the keeper ring parts in the groove, and a portion deformed into a second groove in the axle to permanently secure the annular retainer ring to the axle.

5. A rolling bearing assembly substantially as hereinbefore particularly described and as shown in the accompanying drawing.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. ring parts 54 are bottomed in the groove 28, the retainer ring 56 is placed on the axle spindle with its frustoconically tapered inner surface 58 in contact with the frustoconically tapered outer surfaces 60 of the keepr ring member formed by the keeper ring parts 54. The cylindrical portion 62 of the retainer ring is then swaged or rolled into the trapezoidalsection groove 30 to permanently lock the retainer ring 56 in place and contain the keeper ring parts 54 in the groove 28. Any thrust force applied to the bearing assembly tending to move the separable inner race 50 towards the right as viewed in Figures 1 and 3, and thus tending to change the preset end play or preload is transmitted from the inner race 50 through the back face 68 to the keeper ring parts 54 and then into the axle 14 through the radial face 70 of the groove 28. The keeper ring parts 54 and spindle 12 are of a hardness adequate to resist permanent deformation, thus preventing movement of the separable inner race 50 and change of the preset end play or preload. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A rolling bearing assembly comprising a first race, a second race comprising a first piece having a fixed angular contact raceway and a second piece carried by the first piece and having a fixed angular contact raceway, circumferentially spaced rolling elements engaging a raceway of the first race and the fixed angular contact raceway of the first piece for transmitting a thrust load to the first race, circumferentially spaced rolling elements engaging a raceway of the first race and the fixed angular contact raceway of the second piece for transmitting an oppositing thrust load to the first race, a plurality of hardened keeper ring parts which are accommodated in a circumferential groove in the first piece and engage an end face of the second piece, and an annular retainer ring having a portion which engages the keeper ring parts to retain the keeper ring parts in the groove and another portion which is permanently secured to the first piece, to provide an arrangement in which the width of the keeper ring parts determines the end play or preload in the bearing assembly, for producing a desired end play or preload.