MXPA98003261A - Automat balancing device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system characterized in that it comprises: a rotating system having an axis, and an automatic balance system, the automatic balance system includes: an annular housing, a runway, annular, external arranged in the housing annular and arranged concentrically and coupled with the rotating system to rotate with the rotating system, and a number of rotary bodies arranged in the annular housing and which can move freely along the raceway, for at least one of the dynamic contact or static contact with the race track during rotation of the rotating system, where the outer race track is provided in a separate ring having a bull-shaped groove that forms the race track and has a concave, curved profile confronted towards the center of the separate ring, the ring is firmly inserted into a portion of the housing, formed as a seat for a To the seating surface of the ring and whose seat is set to harden the separate ring, to allow the ring to maintain the circular shape of the ring despite the forces acting on the ring during operation, the bull-shaped groove is positioned in the form concentric with the axis of the rotating system

Description

AUTOMATIC BALANCING DEVICE Description of the invention The present invention relates to a self-balancing device for rotating units or systems, comprising an outer annular raceway arranged in a closed, substantially annular housing, arranged substantially concentric with and attached to the unit or system rotary, for rotating with the rotating unit or system and a variety of rolling bodies disposed in the housing and movable freely along the bearing surface for dynamic and / or static contact therewith during rotation of the rotary system. In different rotating units or systems, such as rotary washing machine drums, blade roof fans, vehicle wheels, etc., large unbalanced forces are present, which must be eliminated as much as possible to give an operation with reduced noise for the rotary system, a reduction of vibrations, to also reduce by this the need to use other stabilizing means, such as benches for heavy machines, etc. and also to allow a high rotational speed, which at least for a machine drum washing machine, it is essential to obtain a desired centrifugal force to expel the water from the washed material in the machine and to prevent damage to the base of the machine and bearings of the shaft where the rotating system is sustained. For this purpose, self-equalizing devices have been previously proposed which have a ring-shaped chamber, sealed and filled with fluid and inserted therein a variety of rolling bodies that fill only a portion of the chamber and move independently to different positions at length REF: 27227 of the annular chamber to counteract the imbalance during rotation. Thus, US Pat. No. 2,984,094 refers to a washing machine having in one embodiment, a device as defined in the preamble of appended claim 1 and with a rolling surface formed by a flat steel strip elastically applied to the wall. of the accommodation. The large bearing elements used in this prior known device thus roll against a flat surface, whereby the rolling bodies have only little stability in the axial direction. GB-A-832,048 proposes for a similar purpose to use commercially available antifriction bearing portions as housing and bearing surface for such self-balancing devices, but such solutions would be expensive and heavy if used in large diameter applications. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a self-balancing device for rotary systems according to the preamble of appended claim 1, by means of which the rolling bodies will have a bearing surface positioned exactly radially and axially, thereby reducing the contact efforts, while the whole device is simple and therefore highly flexible in design and provides an efficient and not yet expensive solution and this has been obtained since the device has been given the characteristics defined in the characterizing part of the claim attached 1. Hereinafter, the invention will be further described with reference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 schematically shows a washing machine drum, with bearings and self-balancing devices according to the invention, shown on each wall or astrial wall of the drum. Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view on a larger scale, through a portion of the self-balancing device shown in Figure 1. Figure 3 schematically shows a plan view of a modality of a rolling surface ring forming part of the self-balancing device according to the invention. Figure 4 is a modified embodiment of a self-balancing device according to the invention. Figure 1 shows in a schematic manner a drum 1 of cylindrical washing machine, which has spindles 2 or concentric shafts extending from one shape of each astrial wall of the drum 1 and are articulated in a housing not shown in bearings 3. It is evident that such a rotary system will be subjected to large unbalanced forces during rotation since the washing goods will often be distributed throughout the drum, but they often accumulate in a small sector of the drum, displaced and spaced from the center of the drum. Similar phenomena caused by manufacturing tolerances, by waste and the like, also apply to other types of rotary systems, such as roof fans of blades, wheels of vehicles and the like. To compensate for and reduce the imbalance, each astrial wall region of the drum in the embodiment according to Figure 1 is therefore provided with a self-balancing device 4 according to the present invention. Each of these self-balancing devices 4 is constituted by an annular housing positioned concentric with the central axis A of the drum 1 of the washing machine. The housing of the self-balancing device in Figure 1 is shown with a quadrangular cross-section, but as shown below, this cross section could be of other shapes, for example circular, etc. Figure 2 shows a cross section through a first embodiment of the self-balancing device 4 according to the invention and shown in figure 1. In the embodiment shown in figure 2, the self-balancing device 4 has a housing constituted by a first half of the housing, formed as an annulus 5 formed substantially through and a second half of the housing formed as an annulus 6 in a through-shape, which are interconnected in a liquid-tight manner along their flanges to jointly form an annular channel 7 in which enclose a diversity of large rolling bodies 8, which during the operation act as weights that compensate for the imbalance. Ordinarily, the remaining space of the annular channel 7 is filled at least partially with a wetting liquid, for example oil, which also has an effect during the traction operation along the rolling bodies until they have settled in. your equilibrium positions. The outer flange 5a of the first housing half 5 and the outer flange 6a of the second housing half 6, in interconnected position, form between them a seat or support 9 for a separate bearing ring 10, having a cross section of toric shape, forming a groove 11 with a curved concave profile facing the center of the ring 10. The groove 1 1 of the ring 10 of the running surface is mounted in a position concentric with the axis A of the rotary system and in a Mounted position, the rolling ring is given radial stiffness and axial alignment by the seat, in which the rolling ring 10 is firmly attached, for example by clamping, by snap-fitting, by gluing or the like. The surface of the seat or support in the support or seat 9 and the groove 11 in toric form are also preferably concentric with each other. The toroidal groove 11 of the rolling ring 10 has a smooth, substantially hard surface and although it should almost be considered as a wire ring and despite its thin shape, it will provide a well defined bearing track for the rolling bodies 10. Therefore, the flanges 5a and 6a are positioned just outside the ring of the running surface, to thereby provide radial stiffness to the ring 10 that is, in the direction of the main forces of the rolling bodies 8, which act on the ring tread. In the embodiment shown, a prolonged rim 6b of the shoulder of the shoulder 6a on the outer side of the second half 6 of the housing and the internal shoulder 6c of the housing half 6 are used to firmly attach the housing of the self-balancing device to the plates of the housing. 12 support or the like, which contribute to increase the rigidity and stability of the circuit or ring of large diameter formed by the wire of the running surface. These support plates 12 could be an astrial wall of the drum of the washing machine. As shown in FIG. 3, the threaded rolling ring 10 can be formed from a straight thin wire or rod, which bends to an annular shape and has its ends fixedly fixed, for example by means of a gasket butt welding 13. The ends of the bar or wire may also be cut obliquely, such that the ring 12 is not a closed circuit but has an oblique groove (not shown). The housing portions 5, 6 are preferably formed from lamellar metal profiles, which are easily formed, assembled and fixedly attached to a rotating portion of the large-sized rotating system. Thus, it is possible to assemble the entire self-balancing device that includes its filling with a wetting liquid, at the manufacturing site and deliver it to the manufacturer of the rotating system for easy adjustment of the self-balancing device in the desired position. The self-balancing device according to the present invention can of course be easily constructed as a detail integrated directly into the system to which it will be applied. For example, an astrial wall of a washing machine drum itself can be used as a housing portion thereof, etc. In FIG. 4, a self-balancing device 4 'according to the invention is finally shown, wherein the housing forming the channel 7 for the rolling bodies 8 is formed with a circular cross-section, preferably as a hose or tube 14 of thick walls, made of a mouldable material, preferably a plastic material and wherein a bearing ring 10, having the same properties and shape as those described in relation to the previous embodiment, is preferably embedded in the material of the tube. The groove 11 defining the rolling surface in the ring 10 of the bearing surface will preferably be of a radius of curvature somewhat greater than the radius of the sphere of the rolling body and the radius of the rolling body should preferably be 70. -95% of the toric radius of the groove of the bearing surface. The rolling bodies 8 and the material of the ring of the rolling surface will preferably have the same hardness and / or elastic limit. The invention is not limited to the embodiments shown in the drawings and described in relation thereto, but modifications and variations in the scope of the appended claims are possible. Although the self-balancing device according to the present invention has been shown and described in a large-sized rotary system, it is by no means limited thereto, despite the fact that it has its most obvious advantages in relation to such systems. rotating large size. It is noted that, in relation to this date, the best method known by the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention is the conventional one for the manufacture of the objects to which it relates. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following

Claims (12)

1. Claims 1. An automatic balancing device for rotating units or systems, comprising an outer annular bearing surface arranged in an annular housing concentric with and attached to the rotary unit or system, for rotating with the rotating unit or system and a variety of bodies rollers arranged in the housing and movable freely along the bearing surface for dynamic and / or static contact therewith during rotation of the rotating system, characterized in that, the outer bearing surface is provided in a separate ring of diameter large, having an O-shaped groove forming the running surface and having a curved concave profile facing the center of the separate ring, which is fixedly inserted into a portion of the housing, formed as a support or seat for a surface in the form of support or seat of the ring and which seat is arranged to reinforce the ring separate to allow it to maintain its circular shape despite the forces acting on it during the operation and which groove in toric is concentric with the axis of the rotating system.
2. 2. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that the toroidal groove of the separate ring has a hard, substantially smooth surface.
3. 3. A device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the separate ring is itself a thin wire ring.
4. 4. A device according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the rolling bodies are balls, characterized in that: the ring-shaped groove of the ring has a radius of curvature slightly greater than the sphere radius of the balls.
5. 5. A device according to claim 4, characterized in that: the sphere radius of the balls is 70-95% of the radius of curvature of the torus in a toric shape in the separate ring.
6. 6. A device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the separate ring is formed of a wire bent in a ring and adapted to its circular shape by the support or seat in the housing.
7. 7. A device according to claim 6, characterized in that the ends of the bent thread ring forming the separate ring are fixedly interconnected, for example by means of a solder joint.
8. 8. A device according to claim 6, characterized in that the ends of the bent threaded ring forming the separate ring are arranged loosely in a manner forming between them a small, preferably oblique, slot.
9. 9. A device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the annular housing is composed of at least two annular discs of a through-shape, joined together to form between them an annular channel that constitutes the annular housing and in the region of the joint have flange portions that form the seat or support for the separate ring.
10. 10. A device according to claim 9, characterized in that the flange portions, for joining together the two annular discs in a through manner are formed to hold the separated ring between them in their seat when the annular disks are interconnected.
11. 11. A device according to any of claims 1-8, characterized in that the annular housing is a molded tube, substantially toroidal, which forms a substantially circular channel and in the material from which the separate ring tube is embedded to project with its groove. toric shape, which forms its rolling surface in the channel.
12. 12. A device according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that: at least part of the annular housing is formed as an integrated part of the rotary unit, for example an astrial wall of a washing machine drum, a wall of a cooling fan, roof with blades or the like.