JP2511235B2 - Lubricant application method and device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a lubricant applying method and apparatus, and more particularly to a lubricant applying method and apparatus for applying a lubricant to an inner surface of a seal lip of an oil seal in a non-contact state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an oil seal for preventing leakage of a sealing fluid such as oil is often used in a rotating portion or a reciprocating portion of an automobile, a motorcycle, various machines and the like.

FIG. 5 shows such a conventional oil seal. This oil seal 1 has a metal reinforcing ring 2 having an L-shaped cross section. A seal lip 3 made of an elastic material such as rubber is integrally fixed so as to cover the lower portion of the reinforcing ring 2.
An outer peripheral surface 4 located on the outer peripheral side of the reinforcing ring 2 is formed on the seal lip 3, and a lip portion 5 extending upward inside the reinforcing ring 2 of the seal lip 3 is formed.
Is formed, and on the upper inner peripheral surface of the lip portion 5,
A lip tip portion 6 is formed so as to protrude inward. A mounting groove 7 is circumferentially formed at a position corresponding to the lip tip 6 on the outer peripheral surface 4 of the lip portion 5, and an annular spring 8 is mounted in the mounting groove 7. ing.

Such a conventional oil seal 1 is formed between a predetermined cylindrical housing 9 and a shaft 10 which is held by a bearing or the like and rotates or reciprocates (hereinafter referred to as rotation) with respect to the housing 9. The outer peripheral surface 4 of the seal lip 3 is attached to one housing 9 side, and the lip tip portion 6 of the seal lip 3 is attached to the other shaft 10 side so as to be in close contact with each other. Further, a spring 8 is mounted in the mounting groove 7 of the seal lip 3, and the lip tip 6
Is designed to be tightened inward in the radial direction. Then, a lubricant such as oil or grease is interposed between the lip tip portion 6 of the seal lip 3 and the shaft 10 to rotate the shaft 10 or the like, thereby sealing the sealing fluid. There is.

Further, FIGS. 6 and 7 show a conventional lubricant applying device for applying a lubricant to the inner surface of the seal lip 3 of the oil seal 1 having the above-described structure. A cylindrical coating jig 11 having a similar diameter is provided, and a plurality of discharge holes 12 are formed on the outer peripheral surface 11a of the coating jig 11 so as to have a predetermined interval in the circumferential direction. There is. A predetermined lubricant 13 is filled in the coating jig 11, and the lubricant 13 is discharged from the discharge hole 12 by applying pressure to the end of the coating jig 11 with air. It is designed to discharge.

In the lubricant applying device, the applying jig 11 is fitted inside the oil seal 1, and the discharge hole 12 is positioned at the seal lip 3 portion of the oil seal 1. In this state, By applying pressure inside the coating jig 11, the lubricant 13 is discharged from the discharge hole 12 to the inner surface of the seal lip 3, and the lubricant 13 is applied to the inner surface of the seal lip 3. There is.

As another conventional lubricant applying means, there is a means for applying the lubricant 13 by brush while rotating the oil seal 1, and further applying a liquid lubricant 13 such as oil. In this case, the lubricant 13 is sprayed onto the oil seal 1, or the oil seal 1 is dipped into the lubricant 13 to be applied thereto.

[0008]

However, the coating means using the conventional coating jig 11 and the lubricant 1 by brush coating are used.
In the application means 3, the lubricant 13 is applied while the application jig 11 or the brush is in contact with the seal lip 3 of the oil seal 1, so that the lip tip of the sharply formed seal lip 3 is applied. There is a problem that the portion 6 may be damaged, and the sealing fluid cannot be properly sealed by the oil seal 1. Moreover, the coating jig 11 needs to be prepared in various ways according to the inner diameter of the oil seal 1, and there is a problem in that the apparatus is wasteful.

Further, the lubricant 1 by spraying or rubbed
In the coating means of No. 3, since the lubricant 13 is applied to places other than the necessary place, the lubricant 13 is wasted,
There is a problem that the consumption amount of the lubricant 13 becomes extremely large.

The present invention has been made in view of these points, and it is possible to properly apply the lubricant to the inner surface of the seal lip with a small amount of the lubricant without damaging the seal lip. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for applying a lubricant that can be used.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, a method of applying a lubricant according to the invention of claim 1 is an oil seal in which a seal lip is integrally fixed to an annular metal reinforcing ring. Predetermined where necessary on the inner surface of the seal lip
In a method of applying a lubricant for applying an amount of lubricant, a predetermined amount of lubricant is held on an application disk having a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the seal lip, and the application disk is driven to rotate at high speed. , given the necessary positions of the inner surface of the seal lip by scattering the lubricant to the outer peripheral side of the coating disc
It is characterized in that a certain amount of lubricant is applied in a non-contact manner.

Further, the coating apparatus of the lubricant according to the invention of claim 2, Tokoro the necessary positions of the inner surface of the seal lip of the oil seal formed by securing the seal lip integrally on the annular metal reinforcing ring In a lubricant applicator for applying a fixed amount of lubricant in a non-contact manner, a coating disc having a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the seal lip is disposed inside the seal lip so as to be freely rotatable at high speed, A filling portion for holding a lubricant is formed on the coating disc, and a lubricant supply device for supplying a predetermined amount of the lubricant to the filling portion is arranged.

[0013]

According to the present invention, since the lubricant is scattered and applied by rotating the coating disk at a high speed, the lubricant can be applied to the inner surface of the seal lip in a non-contact state. Properly, there is no risk of damaging the lip tip of the sharply formed seal lip.
It is possible to apply a predetermined amount of lubricant to a necessary portion and properly seal the sealing fluid with an oil seal. Also,
Since the lubricant can be applied only to the necessary portion of the inner surface of the seal lip, the lubricant is not wasted and the consumption of the lubricant can be significantly reduced.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a lubricant applying device according to the present invention. In the lubricant applying device of this embodiment, a lip portion 5 having a lip tip portion is formed on a reinforcing ring 2. An application disc 14 having a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the seal lip 3 of the oil seal 1 formed by integrally fixing the formed seal lip 3 is arranged, and the upper face of the application disc 14 has an upper surface. An annular filling groove 15 is formed. As shown in FIG. 2, the coating disc 14 has a shape in which the outer peripheral surface is tapered. A rotary shaft 16 extending upward is provided at the center of the coating disk 14.
Is attached to the rotary shaft 16. The rotary shaft 16 is composed of, for example, an air motor. p.
m. A motor 17 capable of rotating at a high speed is connected.

A lubricant supply device 18 for supplying the lubricant 13 to the filling groove 15 of the coating disc 14 is disposed above the coating disc 14 and the lubricant is supplied to the filling groove 15. The supply device 18 has a storage tank 19 that stores a predetermined lubricant 13 such as grease. The lubricant supply device 18 is provided with a discharge nozzle 20 for dripping the lubricant 13 into the filling groove 15. The discharge nozzle 20 has a base portion, for example, an electromagnetic valve or the like, and the storage nozzle 20. A discharge controller 21 that is opened and closed so as to send a predetermined amount of the lubricant 13 in the tank 19 to the discharge nozzle 20 is provided. Further, the lubricant supply device 18 is provided with a pump 22 for discharging the lubricant 13 in the storage tank 19 from a discharge nozzle 20. Instead of the pump 22, the drive fluid may be introduced by an air source (not shown) or the like to discharge the lubricant 13 from the discharge nozzle 20.

An elevating device 23 for elevating and lowering the oil seal 1 is arranged below the coating disk 14, and the elevating device 23 is vertically moved by a lifting cylinder 24. Has 25. A holding body 26 that holds the lower surface and the outer peripheral surface of the oil seal 1 is fixed to the tip of the holding arm 25.

Further, a control circuit 27 is provided in the lubricant applying device, and by this control circuit 27,
The motor 17, the discharge controller 21 of the lubricant supply device 18, the pump 22, and the lifting cylinder 24 are driven and controlled, respectively.

Next, a method of applying the lubricant using the application apparatus of this embodiment will be described.

In this embodiment, the storage tank 19 is
Is filled with a desired lubricant 13, the desired oil seal 1 is held by the holder 26 of the elevating device 23, and the elevating cylinder 24 is operated to raise the holding arm 25. The inner surface of the seal lip 3 is located on the outer peripheral side of the coating disk 14.

In this state, the control circuit 27 operates the pump 22 and the discharge controller 21 to operate the discharge nozzle 21 to discharge a predetermined amount of the lubricant 13.
Is discharged into the filling groove 15 of the coating disk 14. Then, by operating the motor 17, the coating disc 14 is instantaneously rotated at high speed, whereby the lubricant 13 filled in the filling groove 15 is scattered in the outer peripheral direction by the centrifugal force. It is evenly applied to the inner surface of the seal lip 3 of the oil seal 1. In this case, in this embodiment, since the outer peripheral surface of the coating disk 14 is formed in a tapered shape, the lubricant 13 is scattered while spreading in the vertical direction from the tip of the tapered portion. become.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the lubricant 13 is scattered and applied by rotating the applying disk 14 at a high speed, so that the seal lip 3 is applied.
The lubricant can be applied to the inner surface of the seal in a non-contact state, and there is no risk of damaging the lip tip of the sharply formed seal lip 3, and the oil seal 1 can properly seal the sealing fluid. Can be done Moreover, it is possible to easily deal with the oil seals 1 having different inner diameters of the seal lips 3 only by replacing the coating disc 14 having a simple structure. In addition, the lubricant 13 is applied to the seal lip 3
Since it can be applied only to the necessary portions on the inner surface of the above, the lubricant 13 is not wasted, and the consumption amount of the lubricant 13 can be significantly reduced.

As shown in FIG. 3, the coating disc 14 may be formed by inclining its outer peripheral surface so that its upper edge has an acute angle. In this case, the lubricant is used. 13 spreads upward from the upper end of the inclined portion and is scattered and applied.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the inside of the coating disc 14 is formed hollow, and a filling hole 28 communicating with the inside is formed in the upper portion of the coating disc 14 instead of the filling groove 15. Aperture 2 is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the lubricant 13 for scattering.
9 may be formed. In this case, the lubricant 13 is filled into the coating disc 14 from the filling hole 28 by the lubricant supply device 18, and the coating disc 14 is rotationally driven to open the lubricant 13 in the opening 29. And is applied to the inner surface of the seal lip 3.

Further, in the above embodiment, the filling groove 1
Although 5 is formed in a ring shape, a plurality of filling recesses may be arranged in a ring shape in the circumferential direction.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, but various modifications can be made as necessary.

[0027]

As described above, in the lubricant applying method and apparatus according to the present invention, the lubricant is scattered and applied by rotating the applying disk at a high speed. Tokoro in a non-contact state of the necessary portions of the inner surface
A certain amount of lubricant can be applied, there is no risk of damaging the lip tip of the sharply formed seal lip, and the sealing fluid can be properly sealed with an oil seal. Since the lubricant can be applied only to the necessary portions on the inner surface of the seal lip, the lubricant is not wasted, and the consumption of the lubricant can be significantly reduced. Further, it is possible to easily deal with oil seals having different inner diameters of the seal lips by simply replacing the coating disc having a simple structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a lubricant applying device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view showing the coating disk of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing another coating disc of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a vertical sectional view showing still another coating disc of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view showing a conventional general oil seal.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional lubricant applying device.

7 is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Oil Seal 2 Reinforcement Ring 3 Seal Lip 13 Lubricant 14 Coating Disk 15 Filling Groove 17 Motor 18 Lubricant Supply Device 19 Storage Tank 20 Discharge Nozzle 21 Discharge Controller 22 Pump 23 Lifting Device 24 Lifting Cylinder 25 Holding Arm 26 Retainer 27 Control Circuit 28 Filling Hole 29 Opening

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of applying a lubricant for applying a predetermined amount of lubricant to a necessary portion of an inner surface of the seal lip of an oil seal formed by integrally fixing a seal lip to an annular metal reinforcing ring, A predetermined amount of lubricant is held in a coating disc having a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the seal lip, the coating disc is driven to rotate at high speed, and the lubricant is scattered to the outer peripheral side of the coating disc. Non-contact with a specified amount of lubricant on the necessary locations on the inner surface of the seal lip.
A method for applying a lubricant, characterized in that the lubricant is applied more. 2. A lubricant for non-contact application of a predetermined amount of lubricant to a necessary portion of the inner surface of the seal lip of an oil seal formed by integrally fixing a seal lip to an annular metal reinforcing ring. In the apparatus, a coating disc having a diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the seal lip is arranged inside the seal lip so as to be rotatable at high speed, and a filling portion for holding a lubricant is formed on the coating disc. A lubricant applying device, characterized in that a lubricant supplying device for supplying a predetermined amount of lubricant is arranged in the filling portion.