GB943858A - Improvements relating to bearings - Google Patents

Abstract

943,858. Bearings. ROLLS-ROYCE Ltd. May 22, 1962 [May 29, 1961], No. 19354/61. Heading F2A. A shaft bearing arrangement has two chambers 66, 67 sealed against the stub shaft 20 and separated by a sealed lubricant chamber housing the bearing 21, each of the chambers 66, 67 being connected to a discharge outlet 55 (open to the air) via apertures 56, 57, respectively, and the shaft interior, so that when an external fluid pressure differential exists across the bearing 21, fluid leaking into chamber 66 or 67 escapes via the apertures 56, 57 and the outlet 55 without entering the lubricant chamber. The lubricant chamber has walls 32, 42 defining a reservoir 43 to feed lubricant to the bearing 21 via an orifice 47 in an extension 45 of the wall 42, a pipe 44 supplying the reservoir 43 with a single shot of lubricant. The reservoir has an overflow port 46 or ports for lubricant passage to the bearing 21, and is so supplied that the lubricant initially overflows therethrough. The chamber 67 includes walls 26, 27 defining a collector chamber 50 into which lubricant leaking from the lubricant chamber may drain. The walls 26, 27 may be secured to or form part of the shaft. The chamber 50 communicates with the aperture 57 whereby lubricant may drain away therefrom in stationary conditions, operational rotation thereof forcing lubricant centrifugally against its wall 36. The apertures 56, 57 are associated with vent chamber 53 within the shaft 20 communicating with the chambers 66, 67 via stub pipes 62, 63 crossing an annular passage 54 supplied with air to cool the bearing 21. The shaft 20 may be vertically disposed and may carry a compressor and a turbine 15 of a gas turbine engine, e.g. a vertical-lift engine for an aircraft.