GB618948A - Improvements in or relating to lubricating systems for machine parts - Google Patents

Abstract

618,948. Balancing turbine end thrust. GRIFFITH, A. A. July 18, 1945, No. 18471. [Class 110 (iii)] [Also in Group XXXIV] Leakage of oil supplied to the bearings of a rotor or rotors rotating on a fixed shaft through which the oil is supplied under pressure is prevented by applying air or gas pressure to the exterior of a sealing lip extending between the discharge from the moving bearings or rotor and a fixed collecting chamber whence the oil passes to an outlet passage in the fixed shaft. The air or gas pressure is also used to balance end thrust on the rotor. As shown, two independent rotors 10 are splined on hubs 11 fitted in their bore and at their sides with white-metal bearing-bush members 14, rotating round a fixed sleeve 15 on a fixed shaft 16, each rotor being clamped to its hub by end rings 12, 13 bolted together. Lubricating oil under pressure from a passage 21 in the fixed shaft 16 reaches the bearings 14 by a passage 22 in the fixed sleeve 15 and is distributed thereover by ducts 24 in the journal surface and side faces of the bearing-metal bush, the side faces co-operating with fixed discs 17, 18 to take up thrust ; these discs are pinned to the fixed sleeves 15 and to a fixed end member 19, as shown at 20. The discs 17, 18 have sealing lips 25 overhanging and engaging the peripheral edges of the bearing metal-bush 14 and formed with a circumferential channel 26 to provide a collecting chamber for the oil coming from the bearing. From the collecting chamber the oil passes by inward radial ducts 27 to an outlet passage 29 in the shaft. Air or gas under pressure is applied at the exterior of the sealing lip 25 to prevent escape of oil ; this air supply enters by a pipe 33 into a chamber defined by a fixed end member 32 and the clamping ring 12 of the rotor through the intermediary of co-operating sealing flanges 31, 30 formed respectively on the end member 32 and the clamping ring 12. The pressure air or gas passes through ducts 34 in the hubs to successive chambers similarly defined by the clamping rings 13, 12 and their co-operating sealing flanges 31, 30 ; by spacing these at different radial distances the end thrusts on the rotor can be balanced. In a ball-bearing modification, Fig. 4 (not shown), the collecting chamber is provided by slightly spacing the fixed discs axially from the hub which has a shoulder cooperating with a ring covering and extending axially beyond the periphery of the disc to provide the sealing lip ; the inward ducts in the fixed discs are cut across at their outer ends so as to be open to the chamber space. Specification 585,332 is referred to in the Provisional Specification.