US2439297A

US2439297A - Railway journal bearing

Info

Publication number: US2439297A
Authority: US
Inventors: James J Hennessy
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1943-07-03
Filing date: 1943-07-03
Publication date: 1948-04-06
Anticipated expiration: 1965-04-06

Description

J. J. HENNESSY RAILWAY JOURNAL BEARING April 6, 1948.

Filed July 5, 194-3 INVEN'IOR. msaazmassv ATTQRNBY Patented Apr. 6, 1948 UNITE-D STATES PATENT OFFICE RAILWAY JOURNAL BEARING- James-J. Hennessy, Montclair, J.

Application July 3, 1943, swarm); 493,402-

(01. sas -s) 7 Claims; 1-

Thls invention relates to the lubrication of railway axle journals and more particularly to locomotive driver axle journals equipped with a cellar beneath the journal and with a device for pumping lubricant to the journal, and the invention consists in structure for preventing theloss of surplus oil pumped to the journal by recapturing it and returning it to the cellar.

The invention relates more particularly to improvements upon the bearing construction disclosed in my Patent No. 2,293,295, issued August 18, 1942.

Mechanical lubricators of the class described may comprise a pump ac'tuatedby the play of the axle back and forth in the journal box and usually such a pump is arranged to feed an-adeduat'e supply of lubricant to the journal under unfavorable conditions such as low temperature, slow" movement of thelocomotive,.c1ose fit of the axle box to the wheel hubs with resulting relatively small play of the axle back and forth in the journal box. Hence, when" the conditions are more favorable for pumping lubricant to' the journal, as in' warm weather and whe'n there is greaterplay between the parts, there will be an excess amount of Iub'rieant supplied and the excess lubricant tends to travel longitudinally of the journal beyond the bearing) and to escape theaccompanyingdrawings in which-- Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section through a locomotive axle box and bearing witha mechanical lubricator applied thereto and" showing the axle journal and adjacent portion of the wheel hub.

Figure 21s an end viewof the'box and cellar with aportion of the bearing and journal" sentioned, the line" of view being taken approximately'o'n line 2'-=2of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged detailed isometric view of the adjacent portions of the box, brass, cellar and associated elements, the box and brass being sectioned horizontally to more clearly illustrate the construction.

The wheel axle is indicated as being: provided with th'e journal portion 2 and mounts the'driv 2'. ing wl'leell the" hub of which is indicated at 3".

The axle box top wall t and side walls I are recessed to recei-vethe journal bearing 5, which fits around the upper portion of the journal and the downwardly facing longitudinal edges so of which are seated upon upwardly facing ledges 6 in the box sidewalls I. A" plate 4h extends between: side walls 1' and supports the lubricating device which includes a lubricant cellar having}- a bottom wall' 8, side walls 9, front end wall It and a rear end wall (not shown).

The outer end of bearing 5 is recessed as indi-' cated at l3', the'inner end W of therecess being disposed inwardly from the plane of cellar end wall N]. The outer end of the recess, which corresponds to the outer end of the bearing, projects outwardly beyond" said plane. This" general arrangement orhearing recess and cellar end wall is disclosed in the above-mentioned patent and in my Patents No. 2,107,413; issued February 8, 1938, and No. 2,191,468, issued February 2-7 1940i Bearing 5 is: provided with a transverse groove 2e spaced inwardly from recess [3 and cooperat-ing with recess l3 to form a rib 2i". Near each lower forward comer of the bearing, rib 21' and theperipheral face of recess [3' are grooved,- as indicated at 22 and 23; to provide one or" more downwardly and inwardly extending channel's; theinner ends of which'm'erg'e with groove 20.

The bottom of the lowermost groove 23 (o'r'the only groove if but one groove is provided) extends outwardly to the journanenganng fa'ceo'f the bearing to form an upwardly facing ledge 24 adapted to" wipe surplus oil from the adjacentportion of the'bearing and to returnsuch surplus oil and other o-ilwhi'ch' may'have been trapped in groove 23ba'ck to the lower-portion oi transverse groove at the bottom of the" bearing where it will be discharged to the space below thebeariiig and returned to the cellar forrecircuiation. The corner formed by ledge 24 and the outer face 25 of the bearing is bevelled downwardly and outwardly" as indic'ated at 25 to direct arelatively small amount of lubricantto the outerfac'eofith'e' bearing to lubricate the same and the opposing face ofthewheel hub r (Figure l Preferably, each driving- 156K side wan T is" re cesse-tl' to provide a; downwardly racing ledge i=2 overlying the upper edge of the corresponding cellar sidewall 9.- Welded or otherwise sdured' to'ledge 1 2 is a member l5 forming a" depending lip overlapping the inner face: of the adjacent cellar sidewall 91 Theforward end of member I5 extends beyond the cellar end wall Hi andforms an upwardly facing trough l6 having a bottom inclined downwardly and rearwardly from the extreme end of the member.

Lubricant between the journal and the bearing and' moving towards the front end of the bearing will be trapped, at least in part, by groove 20 and drained down to the cellar. That portion of the lubricant which feeds past rib 2| will tend to form a peripheral ring on the projecting portion of the journal and will be thrown off in drops against the peripheral face of recess [3 and run down the same until it encounters

channels

22 and 23 which tend to drain it back to groove 2! but a slight amount will be deflected forwardly by the bevelled surface 25 to lubricate the hub face and the opposing surface of the bearing and box. Any lubricant flowing over channels 22 or discharged directly to that portion of the recess located inwardly of the cellar end wall l and below channels 22 will drain its lubricant oil into the cellar over the fiat portion of member 85, but some of the lubricant will tend to travel towards the outer end of recess l3 and ordinarily would escape between the wheel hub and the hub face of the box and cellar. The trough portion [6 of member i intercepts such oil and drains it back into the cellar. This function of trough It is facilitated by the insertion of a filler element l'l extending from the forward face I8 of the axle box to the wheel hub and from the upper edge of the projecting portion of element l5 to the plane of ledge B where element l1 meets the lower edge 5a of the bearing.

A jointed wiper structure W is mounted on the end wall of the cellar for application to the under surface of the journal and serves to return to the cellar oil which tends to move outwardly along the lower portion of the journal beyond the cellar end wall. This wiper structure is disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent No. 2,191,468.

The lubricating device includes pump struc-- ture indicated enerally at P and a distributor indicated generally at D, but these elements do not in themselves constitute the present invention but are indicated to complete the showing of parts which operate in combination with the structure previously described to assure an adequate supply of lubricant to the journal and its bearing without necessitating unduly frequent addition of lubricant to the cellar or its reservoir.

With the present device, the journal is provided with sufficient lubricant at all times, and the increased amount of lubricant pumped to the journal, due to the generally increased speed of operating trains, is taken advantage of to maintain a greater quantity of oil between the journal and its bearing without undue loss of oil. The increased supply of oil not only lubricates the journal and bearing and prevents wear, but also cushions the journal in its bearing, preventing pounding of the box when there is clearance between the journal and the bearing-and before the bearing has worn to a close fit on the journal.

While some of the elements of this combination may be used irrespective of whether all of the other elements are present, it is preferable to retain all of these elements to assure adequate and economical lubrication, and I contemplate exclusive use of the described parts, separately or together, or any modification of the same which come within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicylindrical downwardly presented concave journal engaging face provided near one end with a peripheral recess extending from near one lower side edge of the bearing to near the opposite lower side edge of the bearing whereby lubricant between the bearing and a journal to which it is applied will be relieved of pressure as it moves longitudinally of the bearing and reaches the recess, the peripheral recess terminating above the lower edge of the bearing in an upwardly facingledge having an upper face extending substantially throughout the width of the recess and inclined inwardly and downwardly from the end of the bearing to drain surplus lubricant awayfrom the end of the bearing, and means to removesurplus lubricant from said recess.

2. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicylindrical downwardly concave journal engaging face provided near one end with a peripheral recess terminating at points spaced from the lower side edges of the bearing whereby lubricant between the bearing and a journal to which it is applied will be relieved of pressure as it moves along the bearing and reaches the recess, there being a peripheral groove in said journal engaging face spaced from said recess inwardly from the end of the bearing, said groove extending downwardly to the lower edges ofv the bearing, the peripheral recess terminating above the lower edge of the bearing in an upwardly facing ledge a substantial portion of which is inclined inwardly and downwardly away from the end of the bearing and merges with said groove to return surplus lubricant to the lower portion of said groove.

3. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicyl'indrioal downwardly concave journal engaging face provided near one end with a peripheral 'recess terminating at points spaced from the lower side edges of the bearing whereby lubricant between the bearing and a journal to which it is applied will be relieved of pressure as it moves along the bearing and reaches the recess, there being a ledge at the lower end of the recess inclined for the most part downwardly and inwardly from the end of the bearing to drain surplus lubricant away from the end of the bearing, the

corner between the outer end of the ledge and r applied will be relieved of pressure as it moves 7 along the bearing and reaches the recess, a ledge at the lower end of said recess projecting outwardly from the journal-opposing face of the recess to wipe lubricant from the end portion of the journal, there being a groove in said face adjacent said ledge, said groove and a portion of said ledge being inclined downwardly and inwardly to drain lubricant accumulating on the ledge away from the end of the bearing, and means to remove surplus lubricant from said recess. V

5. A structure as described in claim 4 in which the corner between the outwardly projecting ledge and the end face of the bearing is bevelled downwardly and outwardly to distribute a small portion of the lubricant wiped by the ledge to the outer end face of the bearing.

6. A hearing as described in claim 4 which includes a transverse groove in the journal engaging surface of the bearing spaced from the peripheral recess inwardly from the end of the bearing, there being an additional groove in the journal opposing face of the recess above the ledge and extending downwardly and inwardly from the end of the journal and leading to said transverse groove.

7. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicylindrical downwardly concave journal engaging face provided near one end with a peripheral recess terminating at points spaced from the lower tween the bearing and a journal to which it is REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,070,257 Hinkley Aug. 12, 1913 2,088,700 Hennessey Aug. 3:, 1937 2,293,295 I-Iennessy Aug. 18, 1942