JP2008095784A - Thrust bearing - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a thrust bearing which shows an excellent sliding characteristic because its mechanical strength is improved and good lubrication for a sliding surface is maintained, and maintains its production cost to be low. <P>SOLUTION: In the thrust bearing used for supporting a load in the thrusting direction, a body made of resin has a disk shape, and a flat bearing surface is provided on one surface of the body, and a conical slope is provided at least on one surface of the body so as to be recessed from the inner circumference of the bearing surface toward the center of the bearing surface. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a bearing, and more particularly to a thrust bearing used for supporting a load in a thrust direction in a rotating portion. The bearings of the present invention are used, for example, in the field of automobiles or in other fields where thrust bearings are used.

Various sliding plates are used in an automatic transmission for automobiles in order to reduce sliding resistance when moving.
The most frequently used one is a metal needle bearing.
However, due to the large number of parts, it was difficult to provide at a low cost.
Therefore, a resin thrust bearing that has a small number of parts and can be provided at low cost has been proposed.

  Conventionally, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, a thrust bearing 100 is known that is used together with a stator in a torque converter in an automatic transmission (AT) of a vehicle such as an automobile (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-323110).

However, this type of thrust bearing 100 is formed in a flat plate shape.
For this type of thrust bearing 100, a manufacturing method in which a resin is filled with a pin disk gate and a disk gate (diaphragm gate) from the center is generally used.
In the case of manufacturing by this type of pin disk gate method, the gate portion is removed by post-processing and commercialized.
For this reason, the problem which the manufacturing cost increased has been caused.
Further, since the oil passage 600 is formed for the purpose of dissipating heat generated on the sliding surface and supplying oil to the sliding surface, the mechanical strength of the thrust bearing 100 is weak.
Furthermore, in order to perform sufficient lubrication, more oil passages 600 must be provided, which accelerates the weakening of the thrust bearing.

JP 2002-323110 A

  In view of the above points, the present invention can increase the mechanical strength of the thrust bearing and maintain good lubrication to the sliding surface, and thus can exhibit excellent sliding characteristics, and the manufacturing cost is also high. An object of the present invention is to provide a thrust bearing that can be kept low.

In order to achieve the above object, a thrust bearing of the present invention is a thrust bearing used for supporting a load in a thrust direction.
The resin body has a disk shape, and a flat bearing surface is provided on one surface, and at least one surface has a conical inclined surface that is recessed from the inner periphery to the center of the bearing surface. It is characterized by having.

The present invention has the following effects.
According to the thrust bearing of the first aspect of the invention, the mechanical strength of the thrust bearing can be increased and good lubrication to the sliding surface can be maintained, so that excellent sliding characteristics are exhibited.

  According to the thrust bearing of the second aspect of the present invention, both the front and back surfaces can be used as bearing surfaces.

  Furthermore, according to the thrust bearing of the invention described in claim 3, good lubrication to the bearing surface can be maintained.

  Furthermore, according to the thrust bearing of the present invention, the lubricating effect on the bearing surface can be enhanced by the synergistic effect of the inclined surface and the oil passage.

  Furthermore, according to the thrust bearing of the invention of claim 5, uniform lubrication to the bearing surface can be achieved.

  Furthermore, according to the thrust bearing of the invention described in claim 6, the thrust bearing can be produced efficiently.

  Furthermore, according to the thrust bearing of the seventh aspect of the invention, it is possible to avoid the injection gate from adversely affecting the function of the thrust bearing.

  Further, according to the thrust bearing of the invention described in claim 8, the labor for removing the injection gate can be saved, and the production cost can be reduced.

  Further, according to the thrust bearing of the invention described in claim 9, it is not necessary to make the thrust bearing an annular shape.

  Further, according to the thrust bearing of the tenth aspect, the lubricating oil is forcibly supplied to the sliding surface by utilizing the centrifugal force of the thrust bearing.

Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described.
The best mode for carrying out the invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a thrust bearing according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG.
A thrust bearing 10 used for supporting a load in the thrust direction is such that a resin-made main body 1 has a disk shape, flat bearing surfaces 4 and 4 are provided on the outer peripheral sides of front and back surfaces 2 and 3, and The bearing surfaces 4 and 4 have a conical inclined surface 5 that is recessed from the inner periphery toward the center.

In the present embodiment, the bearing surfaces 4 and 4 and the inclined surfaces 5 and 5 are provided on both the front and back surfaces of the main body 1.
Also, four oil passages 6 extending in the radial direction are provided radially on the front and back surfaces 2 and 3.
The oil passage 6 crosses the bearing surface 4 and extends to the middle of the inclined surface 5.
Then, the lubricating oil flows radially outward from the central portion side of the inclined surface 5, whereby the oil passage 6 and the inclined surface 5 cooperate to supply the lubricating oil to the bearing surfaces 4, 4. Can maintain proper lubrication.

Further, by chamfering the shoulder 61 of the oil passage 6, the lubricating function to the bearing surfaces 4 and 4 can be further enhanced.
Moreover, although the four oil paths 6 are provided in the circumferential direction equal distribution, the number of the oil paths 6 is not restricted to four, and can be adjusted as needed.
Further, when the oil passage 6 is provided on both the front and back surfaces 2 and 3, it is important in order to maintain the mechanical strength of the thrust bearing that the positions of the oil passages 6 on the front and back sides do not overlap on the circumference. .

Further, since the thrust bearing 10 is made of a resin material, it is molded by injection molding.
For this reason, the injection gate 7 inevitably exists at the time of injection molding. However, in the present invention, the injection gate is present at the center of the inclined surface 5, and the injection gate 7 is axially disposed from the bearing surface 4. It is set as the aspect which does not protrude.
This eliminates the need to remove the injection gate and runner, and can significantly reduce the number of processing steps compared to the prior art, making it possible to keep production costs low.

The thrust bearing 10 according to the present invention is used in a torque converter. An example of its use will be described with reference to FIG.
The outer peripheral surface 8 of the main body 1 of the thrust 10 is held by the outer peripheral surface of the groove that is also received by the lock-up piston 20.
The thrust bearing 10 is sandwiched between the lockup piston 20 and the end face of the turbine hub 30 fitted on the outer periphery of the input shaft 40.

  The present invention is not limited to the best mode for carrying out the invention described above, and various other configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

It is a top view which shows embodiment of the invention concerning a thrust bearing. It is AA sectional drawing of the thrust bearing of FIG. It is a fragmentary sectional view which shows the usage example of the thrust bearing which concerns on this invention. It is a top view which shows the prior art concerning a thrust bearing.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Main body 2 ... One side 3 ... The other side 4 ... Bearing surface 5 ... Inclined surface 6 ... Oil path 7 ... Injection gate 8 ... Outer peripheral surface 10 ... Thrust bearing

Claims (10)

In the thrust bearing (10) used to support the load in the thrust direction,
The main body (1) made of a resin material has a disk shape, and a flat bearing surface (4) is provided on one surface, and at least one surface faces the center from the inner periphery of the bearing surface (4). A thrust bearing, characterized in that it has a concave conical inclined surface (5).   The thrust bearing according to claim 1, wherein the bearing surface (4) and the inclined surface (5) are provided on both front and back surfaces (2), (3) of the main body (1).   The thrust bearing according to claim 1 or 2, wherein an oil passage (6) extending in a radial direction is provided on the front and back surfaces (2) and (3).   The thrust bearing according to claim 3, wherein the oil passage (6) crosses the bearing surface (4) and reaches the inclined surface (5).   The thrust bearing according to claim 3 or 4, wherein a plurality of the oil passages (6) are provided in a circumferentially equidistant manner.   The thrust bearing according to claim 1, wherein the thrust bearing is formed by injection molding.   The thrust bearing according to claim 6, wherein an injection gate (7) in the injection molding is present on the inclined surface (5).   The thrust bearing according to claim 7, wherein the injection gate (7) does not protrude axially from the bearing surface (4).   The thrust bearing according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the thrust bearing (10) is held by a mating member by the outer peripheral surface (8) of the main body (1).   The thrust bearing according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the lubricating oil flows radially outward from the center side of the inclined surface (5).

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